


Break My Silence

by Mafy_mod



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Healing, M/M, Past Child Abuse, Phobias, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Protective Akashi Seijuurou, Protective Aomine Daiki, Protective Generation of Miracles, Smut, mute!Kuroko, selective mutism
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-01
Updated: 2018-03-15
Packaged: 2018-09-21 10:52:35
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 18
Words: 46,406
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9545240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mafy_mod/pseuds/Mafy_mod
Summary: Kuroko Tetsuya's heavy past partially impaired his life, complicating the possible achievement of his dreams. So the last thing he had in mind was to start a relationship with his best friend's boss, Akashi Seijuurou.Yes, romance came into his life as suddenly as a thunder storm, in the form of a heterochromatic cocky redhead. Not exactly what he asked for, but definitely what he needed the most.[Status: permanently dropped.]





	1. Angel Face

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, minna-san! Mafy's here this times with a new fanfiction!
> 
> As I promised when I released this month's schedule on Twitter, a new AkaKuro series will begin! Yay ^.^ I've been wanting to write this story for months now (since mid-September of last year, I think) and I figured it was time to start working on it, while I still have the time.
> 
> Once again, I created an awful past for my lovely bluenette but he has and will have a lot of people who will help him out!
> 
> Well, enjoy :D

Kuroko Tetsuya climbed the stairs to exit Nogizaka Station, taking from his jacket’s pocket a slightly crumbled paper. He checked one more time the address written there and heaved a small sigh.

 

He had barely finished unpacking his things in his new apartment when he received a message on Line from Aomine, asking him to meet with him and Momoi on their workplace. Kuroko had been reluctant to do such at first, seeing as the nightclub where they worked on was supposedly going to open that night, but the tanned male continued to bug him about wanting to celebrate Kuroko’s moving out from his grandmother’s house and wanting him to taste the drinks that he created and have his opinion on them.

 

So after a lot of thinking, the bluenette ended up accepting the invitation and when the hour of the meeting started to get near, he wrote down the address that Aomine had sent him on a paper and dressed more appropriate clothes to go to a nightclub in Roppongi, one of the wealthiest areas in Tokyo and the most famous epicenter of night life in Japan. Knowing Aomine and Momoi, they would force him to stay there until the opening party ended.

 

Kuroko was also in his last year in college to complete his degree and finally get his teaching license, so he hadn’t really gone out all that much to relax and party lately. And with Aomine and Momoi much less, since they had been so busy with their work in the nightclub. Which positively surprised him.

 

When Momoi forced Aomine to work there while he was recuperating from a severed tendon on his leg and was going through rehabilitation to once again continue the basketball practices in the professional team he was now playing with, Kuroko thought he would take his work there in a quite leisurely and nonchalant way. But after two weeks working there, Kuroko received a message from Aomine saying he would start having classes in bar management and that his boss in the nightclub would allow him to work on serving drinks to customers there during the time he was recuperating from his injury.

 

Kuroko got extremely happy to hear such and inwardly gave a "thank you" to Aomine’s boss. Actually, if he met the person in question today, he would tell them his thanks personally for it (or well, ‘write’ his thanks).

 

After walking for a few minutes, making some occasional stops to situate himself, he peered once again to the paper with the address on his hand and noticed he had reached the nightclub that the tanned male was working on: Kaiser des Lichts.

 

Kuroko wrote a quick message on Line for Aomine to warn him that he had arrived there and looked up to the neon sign, which was currently off, that displayed the name of the nightclub on top of the front door. He thought briefly about it. He knew that “Kaiser” meant “emperor” in German, since he remembered learning a little bit about German history back in high school, but he didn’t knew the meaning of the rest.

 

The front door was suddenly open and from there popped the grinning features of the tanned male. “Tetsu, you’re here! Come on in!”

 

Kuroko softly smiled at the taller male and walked over in his direction, passing underneath the arm that was securing the door open.

 

“Was it too hard to get here?” asked Aomine, peering over to the bluenette while he closed the door once again. He saw him shaking his head and snorted. “Yeah, you wouldn’t need to use GPS in Roppongi, right? Like you had to when you got lost in Saitama to go watch one of my games.”

 

Kuroko simply stopped on his track and glared slightly to the tanned male, observing that the grin had morphed into a malicious smirk.

 

“Ahahaha, I’m kidding. Follow me, Tetsu,” laughed Aomine, passing by the bluenette and calling him to go with him with his hand. “We are almost all ready, so most of the staff members here went home to rest a little bit before the opening. Satsuki went to fetch something that Akashi asked her but she’ll get here in a few minutes. Enough minutes for you to taste my heavenly creations!”

 

Kuroko softly rolled his eyes while shaking his head a little bit in disbelieve and took his phone out of his jacket’s pocket once again. He opened the text editor and started writing there. When they reached the bar counter and Aomine motioned over to behind it, Kuroko showed him the screen of his phone.

 

_[You call them heavenly, but last time I tasted one of your so claimed ‘creations’, I woke up in the next day with a terrible headache and my stomach was feeling awful, Aomine-kun.]_

 

“Geh! Okay, so that one may have been a little bit too strong for you, but I promise that these two will take into consideration your small body,” vowed the tanned male, taking two glasses from underneath the counter.

 

Kuroko twisted his nose a little bit at Aomine’s words and wrote a new message in the phone, turning it afterwards to him.

 

_[Please don’t call me ‘small’. I have an average height for a Japanese male. You are the one who is too tall for your nationality.]_

 

“One of my coworkers here in the bar is actually taller than me and he’s also Japanese, but whatever. Now watch how a pro does his job,” pointed out Aomine, a knowing smirk appearing in his features as he picked up several bottles with different types of alcohol.

 

Kuroko softly snorted at the last sentence, but didn’t disturb the taller male on the making of the drinks. He didn’t want him to get distracted and make some sort of mistake that would put him in the hospital, with “alcoholic coma” written on his chart.

 

He continued observing as Aomine poured different types of drinks in the glasses, switching between mixing them on the cups themselves with a bar spoon and mixing two or more liquids in a cobbler shaker. The bluenette noticed that he had measured everything with his eyes and didn’t resort to any measuring instrument… which was making him slightly worried. But the fact that he had been allowed to serve customers already even though he only started one and a half months ago was taking off the edge of the worry a little bit. Kuroko also trusted Aomine immensely and doubted that anything that he made would really kill him (unlike Momoi’s cooking).

 

“Okay, they’re ready!” announced Aomine, pushing the two cups in the smaller male’s direction with the back of his fingers. He saw the reticent look on Kuroko’s face as he looked intently to the medium cup with a dark blue colored concoction and the smaller one with a bright orange liquid. “Don’t worry, Tetsu. They don’t have names yet but Kise, a coworker of mine, tasted them on the day I created them and he said they aren’t that bad. I’ve also made some alterations to the recipe meanwhile, so they are much better than before.”

 

Kuroko picked once again his phone and wrote something in it, putting it down on the counter afterwards and giving a quick flick to it with his fingers, sending it in the tanned male’s direction, who grabbed it and read the message.

 

_[Keep my phone with you just in case I need an ambulance or something of the sort. I trust you as a person, but your drinks are still too new of a hobby for me to entrust my life to them.]_

 

“Ahaha… You’re so damn funny, you pipsqueak!” ironically laughed Aomine, crossing his arms over his chest while holding the cell phone. “Drink them first and then complain!”

 

Kuroko simply shrugged his shoulders and challengingly looked over to the taller male, his expression almost screaming that it was exactly that what he planned on doing. He picked up first the blue colored drink, since it seemed the less weird one and gave a small gulp to it, testing the waters first before diving into them. He deemed that it seemed mostly fine in terms of flavor so he gave a few more confident swallows to the liquid.

 

He put down the glass on the counter and then grabbed the other cup, analyzing with his teal eyes the bright orange color that the liquid had. The color was definitely making him feel adamant to taste it, but like Aomine had said, he could only really complain if he tasted it. So he went head on for it. He closed his eyes and gave an extremely hesitant and small gulp to the liquid.

 

The taste was definitely not what he was expecting. Taking the color into consideration, he would have expected it to have a sort of bitter-sweet taste, like citrus or something along those lines. However, it had an extremely soft and gentle flavor, and even though he had seen the tanned male pour alcoholic drinks in it, he would have believed it if someone told him that it was only juice. He finished the second drink, unlike he had done with the other one, and put the glass back on the counter, stretching his hand to the taller male so he could return him his phone.

 

“So? What did you think of them?” anxiously asked Aomine while leaning his body over the counter, his muscled arms flexed on its black surface, after having given the device to the smaller male.

 

Kuroko started writing on the phone, skillfully pressing his fingers on the screen so that the words that his mouth couldn’t formulate would be expressed in some sort of way. After a few seconds, he turned the phone around and showed the message to the tanned male.

 

_[The first drink is good, more or less, but it’s probably too strong, if you want clients to drink more than one. I would give it a score of 4/10. The second drink passes with flying colors, literally. Perfect score. I would advise you, though, to try to soften the color a little bit, since it’s sort of suspicious. People may think that you’re feeding them some sort of chemical waste. Also, please make sure that all clients know that it HAS alcohol, or I can already see the bad type of guys offering drinks to girls to put them drunk while claiming that the cocktail is alcohol-free.]_

 

“Ah-ha! I told ya they were good!” yelled Aomine, celebrating over the fact that at least one of his drinks was actually accepted by the bluenette. “I’ll show Murasakibara and Akashi this drink, then, to see if they are interested in having it in our menu. After I find a way to change the color a little bit, that is.”

 

“What is it that you want to show me, Daiki?” asked suddenly a voice from the other side of the big room.

 

“Oh, Akashi,” greeted Aomine, straightening his back slightly. Kuroko also turned around on the tall chair he was sitting on since he recognized that name as the one that the tanned male usually used to address his boss. When he looked in the direction of the voice, he saw a tall redhead (well, taller than him, that is), his eyes harboring mismatched colors, the right one fire red and the left liquid gold. “I thought you had left after you sent Satsuki to go gather those papers from the suppliers.”

 

“I thought about doing such, but I decided to not waste time and simply stayed here dealing with other things in advance,” explained Akashi, walking to the bar area with steady and measured steps, only stopping when he reached one of the chairs.

 

“I hope you don’t mind I invited him to the club while it’s closed,” added Aomine while gathering the bottles he had used to make the drinks so he could put them in their respective places.

 

“’Him’?” repeated Akashi, arching slightly an eyebrow. However, when he looked to the chair next to the one he was on, he saw an unfamiliar bluenette sitting there. “Ah… Since when have you been there?”

 

“Tetsu’s been sitting there since before you arrived,” explained Aomine, taking the used glasses to the sink so he could wash them later. He turned around and put his hands on the counter afterwards, grinning happily. “He’s Tetsu. Ah, Kuroko Tetsuya, I mean. He’s my and Satsuki’s childhood friend. Since he finished moving to his own apartment today, we invited him to meet with us here so we could celebrate together.”

 

“I see. But warn me next time you want to invite someone here during closed hours, Daiki,” acknowledged the redhead, his eyes never leaving the teal ones that stared right back at him. He stretched his hand forward in the bluenette’s direction and softly smiled at him. “I’m Akashi Seijuurou, the manager of ‘Kaiser des Lichts’.”

 

Kuroko was about to shake the taller male’s hand when his name was yelled in the form of a shriek, startling him deeply.

 

“Tetsu-kuuuuuuuuuuuun, you’re here<3” yelled Momoi, dashing in the bluenette’s direction after having dropped both her purse and the folder she was carrying messily to on top of a table. As soon as she reached near Kuroko, she threw herself to his arms, almost knocking both of them to the floor if Akashi hadn’t been quick enough and supported the back of the smaller male with his hands. “I missed you so, so much! I’m sorry I couldn’t come to help you move out of your grandma’s house, but you know~ Work kept me busy and all that. Oh, hello, Aomine-kun, Akashi-kun. I have so many things I would like to talk with you. Having said that, I will steal Tetsu-kun from you for a while, Aomine-kun. It’s my time to monopolize him now. Right, Tetsu-kun?”

 

Kuroko simply released a sigh and motioned his hand up, gently patting the pink haired girl’s head while smiling softly to her. Momoi almost passed out with the friendly treatment of her childhood friend and started pushing him over to the table where she had put her things on, giving a quick peek to the tanned male from behind and sticking her tongue at him.

 

“Satsuki can be such a child when Tetsu is concerned…” sighed Aomine, shaking his head in admonishment while crossing his arms over his chest. However, as he observed Momoi happily chatting with Kuroko, who was attentively listening to everything she was saying, he couldn’t help the slight smile that appeared on his features.

 

“So he’s the famous ‘Tetsu-kun’ that Satsuki-chan talks about from time to time,” amusingly said Akashi, turning around slightly in the chair to observe the interactions between the pink haired girl, who almost seemed like she had regressed to her teenager years with the happiness she was displaying on her face, and the always silent bluenette, who ever so often wrote some things on his cell phone. “Though I can only see the contrast between them. For a childhood friend, Kuroko-kun sure is quiet when we compare him to her. He behaved the same way when I arrived, so I thought he was just feeling slightly shy with an unknown presence. But now I see he behaves like that with everyone.”

 

“Ah… Right… It’s not that he’s exactly feeling shy or anything, but… Um…” hesitantly started Aomine, motioning his hand up to scratch his head while he thought about a way to explain it to Akashi. “Tetsu, he… He can’t speak. Or actually, he _doesn’t want_ to speak.”

 

“Eh?” interjected Akashi, suddenly turning around his head in the tanned male’s direction, his eyes open in surprise.

 

“He has selective mutism,” explained further Aomine, walking around the counter to go sit in the chairs together with the redhead. “Nobody has heard him say a single word since— Well, since over 5 years ago. So don’t take it in a bad way when he simply stares at you while you’re talking and then answers using his cell phone or a piece of paper or just nods his head. He has also learned sign language in college but most people don’t know it, so he doesn’t use it very often. Oh, and he can hear perfectly well. He just… doesn’t talk.”

 

“…” Akashi returned his gaze to the bluenette. Now he understood why he was recurring to his cell phone so many times while chatting with Momoi and why he stayed quiet enough for him to not even notice his presence when he sat down on the bar.

 

“But well, if we forget the fact that he doesn’t speak, he’s an awesome person to be with,” continued the tanned male, his smile widening more. “He’s clumsy and awkward around people who he doesn’t know very well, and I’m dead worried about how he will survive by himself on his apartment when he’s a tragedy in the kitchen. But he’s the most observant, smart and honest person I have ever known in my entire life.”

 

“Well, would you look at that? Aomine Daiki is actually complimenting someone,” teased Akashi, his eyes unmoving from the smaller male as he continued studying the way he interacted with his employee. He was starting to get slightly interested in the bluenette, seeing as Aomine wasn’t the type of person who actually said good things about others in such an upfront way.

 

“Oh, shut it! I’ve known Tetsu since we were kids. I know his qualities and defects just like I know my own,” grumbled Aomine, more embarrassed than actually angry at the redhead’s words. “He’s a pipsqueak who hates to lose, but well, that also means he doesn’t give up easily. And he’s always pushing himself way to hard. That’s why neither I nor Satsuki can leave him alone for too long. So we sorta dote on him like he’s our younger brother.”

 

“Satsuki-chan doesn’t look like she’s talking with a younger brother, though,” pointed out Akashi, switching momentarily his gaze to the pink haired girl.

 

“Ah, yes… She has had a little crush on Tetsu since way back,” confessed the tanned male, adjusting his body slightly in the chair. “She claims that she goes out on ‘dates’ with him every now and then, but I don’t really think that Tetsu sees her in that say. I mean, I don’t even know if he has noticed that Satsuki has a freaking crush on him yet.”

 

“Ah… Such a pity for Satsuki-chan,” added Akashi, chuckling softly. He got up from his chair and gave a step forward in the same direction he had came from. “Let him stay for the opening of the club. That way you can all continue to catch up with your conversations. Though you will still have to do your work like usual.”

 

“Eh…? Ah, yes, of course,” acknowledged Aomine, slightly taken aback by the redhead’s first words. He then grinned happily at him while getting up from the chair. “I’ll go give them the good news then. Hey, Tetsu, Satsuki! Guess what?”

 

Akashi saw from the corner of his heterochromatic eyes as Aomine walked over to the table where Momoi and Kuroko were sitting on and told them about what he had just said, Momoi immediately jumping with excitement and waving her hands to him as a means to thank him. Kuroko also turned around in his direction and, surprisingly, smiled at him. He simply nodded at them and continued to walk to his office situated in the upper floor of the building.

 

However, it hadn’t only been the smile of the bluenette that had surprised him. The sudden squeeze he felt in his heart when he saw it also came in as an unexpected surprise.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And one more AkaKuro romance filled with emotional rollercoasters has begun ^.^
> 
> I still haven't organized an updates schedule for this fic, but I don't think you will have to wait a lot for each chapter. At least one chapter per week is guaranteed (since they are considerably big).
> 
> On a side note, the title of each chapter is the name of a cocktail. You have no idea how weird the naming sense of some people is... I mean, names like "Duck Fart" doesn't seem all that appealing for me -.-' Not to mention the R18 names out there for some of them...
> 
> Twitter: https://twitter.com/Mafy_mod  
> Tumblr: http://mafymod.tumblr.com/


	2. Eye of the Storm

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, minna-san! Mafy's here with a new chapter ^.^
> 
> Before you read this chapter, please go watch the following, just so you can understand Aomine's joke: Avenue Q's musical - "If You Were Gay" scene. I promise that you will laugh a lot when watching the version done in the theater and not only the lyrics (but you can watch either - it's still funny XD).
> 
> Well, enjoy :D

“You should have seen Kagami when I gave him my ‘super knock-out’ cocktail,” laughed Aomine, tapping his hand on the table he was sitting at together with Kuroko and Momoi. “He got so shit-faced that he just crashed completely. And in the next morning, he didn’t remember even having drunk it! Ahahahaha!”

 

“You’re awful, Dai-chan…” admonished Momoi, softly shaking her head to accentuate her displeasure on the pranks that the tanned male was perpetually pulling on his teammate in the professional basketball team they belonged to.

 

Kuroko released a soft sigh and gave a quick flick to his cell phone, sliding it through the table in the taller male’s direction.

 

_[You should start to pay more attention to what kind of drinks you make for Kagami-kun. He’s an athlete just like you are. As such, you know very well that he needs to take care of his body. Plus… he’s a terrible drinker.]_

 

“Ahahaha! I know he is, Tetsu,” acknowledged Aomine, sending the cell phone right back to the bluenette. “And it’s exactly because I know he’s got absolutely no tolerance to alcohol that I make him drink. It’s hilarious to see his reactions when I show him the videos of the weird stunts he pulls while drunk.”

 

Kuroko once again started writing on his cell phone and then put it in front of the tanned male’s face, a completely blank look on his features.

 

_[So that’s the reason why you decided to buy a new camera. Don’t you get sick of teasing Kagami-kun and make him do humiliating things, like recording him singing the opening song of Sailor Moon or putting him trying to score a basket while completely “shit-faced”?]_

 

“Do you want me to be honest?” asked Aomine with a serious demeanor on his face. When he saw the bluenette giving a quick nod with his head, a sly smirk tugged his lips upwards. “I don’t. And I never will. Kagami is hilarious while drunk and there will come a day when I will put him singing ‘If You Were Gay’ from Avenue Q with the puppets I made him do the other day. Now I only need another person to join the little show and take one of the papers. ‘Wanna join, Tetsu?”

 

_[I will politely decline the offer, Aomine-kun. And you should also give up on it. If you record him doing that, Kagami-kun will kill you, destroy your camera and then kill himself with the shame he’s feeling.]_

 

“Ahahahahaha!” roared the tanned male, laughing while clutching at the sides of his stomach. He cleaned the tears on the corner of his eyes and looked at the bluenette once again. “I would like to see him trying to kill me. But well… I’ll just create some sort of story and make Kise and Kagami meet one of these days to go out drinking with me. Then I can put both of them singing that song.”

 

“You’re a terrible human being, Dai-chan…” sighed once again Momoi. She should probably warn Kagami about the possible danger he will be under if Aomine invites him to go drinking with his coworkers. Kise too, just to play safe.

 

“Oh~ What’s this about me?” sounded a cheerful voice from the door of the staff room that was behind the counter, right next to the kitchen door.

 

When Aomine, Kuroko and Momoi looked over in its direction, they saw a blonde male sticking his head out to peer at the inside of the sitting area of the nightclub.

 

“Ki-chan, you’re here already?” asked Momoi, awkwardly smiling at the blonde. He would probably freak out if he knew what Aomine was planning for him.

 

“Yeah, we only have 2 hours until the opening so I returned here a little bit earlier than I had planned,” answered Kise, fully coming out of the staff room and walking over to the table where his coworkers where sitting on. “I need to check if all the adjustments I made for the DJ boot are completely functional and if all the other things are ready for the awesome show I will put forward~ But what are you doing here, Aominecchi? Seeing Momocchi isn’t all that weird, but you staying here is— Woah!”

 

As Kise was motioning down to one of the chairs of the table being used by the tanned male and the pink haired girl, he sat down on top of something soft and immediately jumped at it, looking right away to the chair.

 

“Tetsu is using that chair, Kise,” snickered Aomine while trying to keep his laughter inside over the shriek that the blonde released after he almost sat down on the lap of the bluenette.

 

“W-When did he get here!?” asked Kise with his eyes open in surprise, his heart also hammering inside of his chest. “Wait, you said ‘Tetsu’… Is he your and Momocchi’s childhood friend? The one Momocchi is always talking about and fawning ov— Ugh!”

 

“Be quiet, Ki-chan,” ordered Momoi, striking her elbow strongly against the blonde’s stomach. She cleared her throat and straightened her back slightly. “He’s Kuroko Tetsuya, my and Aomine-kun’s childhood friend, like you said. He moved out from his family’s house today so we invited him to come to the nightclub and stay for the opening party.”

 

“Hmm~ Well, okay,” simply acknowledged Kise while shrugging his shoulders. He motioned his hand forward so he could greet the smaller male. “I’m Kise Ryouta, the one and only super cool DJ of ‘Kaiser des Lichts’~! You probably have heard of me before since I’m highly featured in magazines and all that, but nice to meet you!”

 

Instead of shaking the blonde’s hand, Kuroko picked up his cell phone and started writing on it.

 

“E-Eh…? A-Am I being ignored?” stuttered Kise in surprise, switching his gaze between the bluenette and his coworkers, who were simply chuckling at it. Then suddenly Kuroko motioned his phone forward and put it in front of his face.

 

_[Nice to meet you too, Kise-kun. I apologize but I never heard of you before. But I’ll take your word on you being a good DJ.]_

 

“Eh…?” Kise continued to look to the cell phone directed at him with stupefaction written all over his face. “W-What… What do you mean you never heard of me!? I’m the most famous DJ of the entire Tokyo area! What kind of rock have you been living under to not know me!?”

 

Kuroko switched his cell phone back to himself while the blonde continued to babble about his achievements and experience as a DJ, quickly writing on it once again and then putting it in front of the taller male one more time.

 

_[I lied. I know who you are, Kise-kun. I can’t call myself a hardcore fan exactly but I do like the music you put on nightclubs. The few times I’ve been in one you were working on, I did enjoy myself a lot. Please keep up the good work.]_

 

“So you do know me!” yelped Kise in relief. He pushed the chair beside the bluenette and sat down on it, putting his elbow on the table and leaning the side of his head on his hand. “You sure gave me a scare when you said you didn’t know who _I_ am. I mean, even housewives know me!”

 

 _Well, I guess Kise is taking Tetsu in better than I expected,_ inwardly pointed out Aomine while he saw the interactions between the two males, a soft smile in his features. _But Kise is a complete weirdo so it’s no wonder. I just hope he doesn’t ask something he shouldn’t since he has even less delicacy than I have._

 

“So, Kuroko-kun… Momocchi said you just moved out to your own apartment,” continued Kise, happily grinning to the bluenette. “Are you a student? College? Or do you work already?”

 

_[Both. I’m on my last year to get my Bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood Education. And I do have a little side job or I wouldn’t be able to support myself while living by myself.]_

 

“Ohhh! Searching to work with children then?” asked further Kise, thinking closely about it. “Won’t it be hard to do it, though? Since you don’t seem to be able to spea— Ah…”

 

 _Told ya…_ mumbled Aomine in the back of his mind while he face palmed himself. He was about to start to intervene in the conversation when Kuroko lifted his cell phone once again and put it near Kise’s face.

 

_[I completed my teaching training already in a small kindergarten and I didn’t have any trouble communicating with the children. It’s actually easier to speak with them than with adults, even if most of them don’t know how to read yet. Children pay more attention to body language than grown-ups, after all.]_

 

“Ah… I’m sorry! I didn’t mean it in a bad way!” apologized Kise in a frenetic motion as he observed the completely blank demeanor in the smaller male’s face while he showed him his cell phone.

 

“Don’t worry, Ki-chan. Tetsu-kun didn’t take it to heart,” explained Momoi, chuckling at the worry in the blonde’s features. “His face is almost all the time completely expressionless. And, unfortunately, he’s used to people doubting his capacities as a teacher since he doesn’t speak. But I have to say… when I saw him playing with the little children in the kindergarten he worked on for the first time, it made me want to bear his children just so he could be their father<3”

 

“I think that was for a completely different reason…” mumbled Aomine under his breath. When he saw the pink haired girl throwing him a glare, he cleared his throat and decided to remain silent for a little bit more.

 

“So Tetsu-kun is more than capable of becoming a kindergarten teacher any time of the year!” continued Momoi, linking her arm around the bluenette’s one and smiling happily at him. “Right, Tetsu-kun?”

 

Kuroko softly smiled at the pink haired girl and patted her head, giving a quick nod with his head in acknowledgment.

 

“I see. Good for you, then, Kuroko-kun!” acknowledged Kise with a bright smile on his face.

 

“Oh, what’s this? Some kind of gathering is going on and you didn’t invite us to participate?” suddenly sounded a male voice from the other side of the big division.

 

From a lance of stairs appeared three individuals, two of which completely unknown to Kuroko. In the middle of two taller males, one with black hair and the other green haired, was Akashi, and all of them were walking in their table’s direction.

 

“The opening hour is getting closer,” announced Akashi as soon as he stopped near the table. “Has everyone arrived already?”

 

“I think the only ones missing are Murasakibara and, of course, Haizaki,” said Aomine, turning around on his seat. “Haizaki will probably get here at the last minute, like usual.”

 

“God! I’ll give him a call and threaten him that if he doesn’t get his ass here in 15 minutes, I’ll cut his pay in half,” fumed the black haired male while taking a cell phone from his suit’s pocket and starting to walk away.

 

“And has Murasakibara not arrived yet?” added the green haired male while adjusting his glasses. “He said he would try to get here the quickest he could to give the final check to everything in the kitchen and on the bar.”

 

“Hmm… That’s what I’m doing, Mido-chin…” resounded a sluggish voice from the inside of the kitchen area. After a few seconds passed, an extremely tall purple haired male surfaced from inside of the kitchen with a tray in his hands. He leisurely walked to the table and put the tray, which displayed different small sweets and pastries, on top of its surface. “I have a few samples for anyone who wants to taste them. They are the same that will be served during the opening party.”

 

“Ohh~ Don’t mind if I do, then~” delightfully acknowledged Kise while intently looking to the tray to choose which sweet he would start with. He picked a chocolate truffle and readily put it in his mouth, savoring the strawberry filling it had. “Delicious~ Kuroko-kun, try some too!”

 

“’Kuroko-kun’?” repeated both the green haired male and the purple haired giant, not recognizing that name from the list of workers in the nightclub. When they looked over to the seat next to the blonde, they saw an unfamiliar bluenette sitting there.

 

“Go for it, Kuroko-kun,” added Akashi, giving a quick smile to the smaller male, who seemed sort of lost on what to do due to the blonde’s words. “We do need to get the opinion of someone who will be a customer, after all.”

 

Kuroko gave a quick nod with his head and picked up the pastry closer to him. It was a small slice made of a puff pastry base with cream in the middle, decorated with granulated sugar and a raspberry on top. He picked up one of the forks also displayed in the tray and took a piece of the pastry, quickly leading it to his mouth.

 

His eyes immediately shone with delight, surprising the workers of the nightclub with it. Aomine and Momoi simply started to laugh at the bluenette’s typical reaction when he ate sweets.

 

“Murasakibara, I think you just become Tetsu’s new best friend,” snickered Aomine while also taking a miniature chocolate cupcake from the tray and stuffing it in his mouth.

 

After devouring the small slice, Kuroko immediately picked up his cell phone and started writing in it, turning it afterwards to the purple haired male.

 

_[It was really delicious! I never saw this pastry in stores but I could tell that it had custard cream as soon as I put it in my mouth. What is it called?]_

 

“…” The purple haired giant kept the cell phone under his gaze for brief seconds, switching it afterwards to the smaller male. “It’s called cremeschnitte. It’s a dessert found in several Central European countries.”

 

Kuroko once again turned the cell phone back to himself and started writing a new message in it, turning it afterwards to the taller male when he finished.

 

_[Are you a pastry chef?]_

 

“No… I do have a cooking license but I mainly work on the bar to serve drinks together with Mine-chin,” explained the purple haired male, picking one of the small chocolate truffles and putting it in his mouth. “Aka-chin asked me if I could make some sweets and desserts to the opening party so I baked these.”

 

“Murasakibara was the one who taught me how to make most of the drinks and cocktails that I now know how to make,” added Aomine while grinning to the smaller male. “He’s the official bartender of ‘Kaiser des Lichts’. But I’m seeking to steal that place from him, at least while I’m going through rehabilitation.”

 

Kuroko turned around to face Aomine and wrote a quick message in his cell phone, giving it to the tanned male afterwards so he could read the message.

 

_[Please don’t do that, Aomine-kun. He’s such a wonderful chef and I bet he does better cocktails than you.]_

 

“Uwah… So you’re already siding with Murasakibara?” grumbled Aomine while returning the cell phone to the smaller male. “Grab the stomach of a man and you will get their love forever, as they say.”

 

“Eh? You like them that much, Tetsu-kun?” asked Momoi, tilting her head as she looked to Kuroko with puppy eyes. “But when I cook for you, you never do this type of face, even with sweets.”

 

“That’s because you suck at cooking, Satsuki,” pointed out Aomine with a half-disgusted expression on his face. “You’re actually worse than Tetsu in the kitchen.”

 

“What!? I am not!” complained Momoi right away, looking at her childhood friend with a scandalized expression on her face. “I am a very good cooker. Right?”

 

“…” Everyone there remained silent and averted their eyes from the pink haired girl. Kuroko was the only one who gave gentle pats to her back so he could comfort her over that fact of life.

 

“Anyway,” suddenly said the green haired male after having cleared his throat, looking directly to the bluenette. “Who are you?”

 

“He’s Kuroko Tetsuya, Daiki and Satsuki-chan’s childhood friend,” answered this time Akashi, giving a quick glance to the green haired male and then returning it to Kuroko. “I told him he could stay here with both of them for the opening party.”

 

“Is that so?” acknowledged the green haired male while adjusting his glasses. He released a quick sigh and looked back to the smaller male. “My name is Midorima Shintarou. I work here as the organizer of events.”

 

“And I’m Nijimura Shuuzou. I work together with Akashi upstairs,” suddenly interrupted the same voice from before. The black haired male was returning from the place where he had disappeared to make the said phone call, dragging together with him an ash haired male by the back of his shirt. “This punk is Haizaki Shougo, the self-proclaimed ‘bodyguard’ of ‘Kaiser des Lichts’. Well, he sort of is, actually.”

 

Kuroko looked down to his cell phone and quickly wrote a new message there, turning around his phone to the other males.

 

_[Nice to meet you, Midorima-san, Nijimura-san, Haizaki-san. You too, Murasakibara-san. I’m Kuroko Tetsuya, Aomine-kun’s and Momoi-san’s friend.]_

 

“Drop the ‘san’,” protested Midorima, adjusting his glasses. “It makes me feel old when you call me that way.”

 

“Yeah… ‘San’ is too formal, so you can also drop it for me,” added Murasakibara, putting a small cherry cupcake in his mouth and chewing it delightfully.

 

_[Then, Midorima-kun and Murasakibara-kun.]_

 

“You say you’re Daiki’s and Satsuki’s friend, but how old are you?” asked Haizaki after having shrugged off Nijimura’s hold on his clothes away. He started lifting his hand to point at the bluenette, but his arm was suddenly gripped and pushed back down. “What?”

 

“Nothing…” answered Aomine, releasing the forearm of the ash haired male after having certifying himself that he didn’t plan on raising it again. “Tetsu is the same age as me and Satsuki. We are childhood friends and have attended school together pretty much our whole lives.”

 

“Geh, another brat, then…” cussed Haizaki while sneering at Kuroko.

 

“You’re the only brat here, Haizaki!” admonished Nijimura while hitting the back of the head of the ash haired male with his fist, who immediately yelped in pain.

 

“Kuroko-kun, we are going to arrange the final preparations for the opening, as well as check several things. Would you like to give us a hand?” proposed Akashi, giving a quick upturn to his lips to the smaller male, after having thrown an admonishing look to the ash haired male.

 

Kuroko indecisively looked around to the workers of the nightclub and gave a quick nod with his head.

 

“But are you really okay with it, Tetsu-kun?” asked Momoi, turning around to face directly the bluenette. “We did invite you to the opening party but if you are busy with your classes and your job, we don’t really mind if you don’t stay that long.”

 

Kuroko gave his phone to the pink haired girl after having written there a new message, smiling softly to her.

 

_[I don’t have classes tomorrow. And my job isn’t a problem at the moment since I’m pretty ahead schedule with it. If I didn’t really have the time, I wouldn’t have come. So you don’t have to worry, Momoi-san.]_

 

“That’s great, then!” happily acknowledged Momoi, smiling brightly to the bluenette.

 

“Momoi mentioned a job. What do you do?” asked Midorima, looking intently to the smaller male. He really wondered what kind of job he could be doing while studying and having such a disability on him.

 

“Oh, Tetsu has a real nice job,” explained Aomine, looking to Kuroko with a knowing smirk on his features. “He actually earns more than I do per month.”

 

“Is that your way of complaining about the salary that I give you, Daiki?” interrupted Akashi, arching slightly an eyebrow as he intently looked to the tanned male.

 

“’Course not,” teasingly answered Aomine. The smirk grew more accentuated and he looked sideways to the redhead. “But if it was, would you give me a raise?”

 

“Don’t hold your breath on it because it won’t happen,” shortly answered Akashi with a dead serious demeanor on his face. He crossed his arms over his chest and continued looking at the taller male with his heterochromatic eyes. “And you also earn more than enough with your basketball team.”

 

“Tetsu’s salary still surpasses both of them together,” pointed out Aomine. He turned around to the bluenette and grinned at him. “Well, now it does. It wasn’t always like that.”

 

“You haven’t said what it is, thought,” added Midorima while adjusting his glasses. Now he was definitely curious about it and the mysteriousness around the high salary that a college student could actually earn.

 

Kuroko crossed his eyes with Aomine and Momoi and then dropped it down back to his cell phone, writing in it while he heard his two friends chuckling slightly at the knowledge of the answer that he would give. After a couple of seconds, he turned his phone around to the other workers.

 

_[It’s a secret.]_

 

“Eh~ Don’t give us that!” complained Kise right away, pouting slightly at such a unsatisfying answer. “Now I’m really curious to know what kind of job could provide more money than being in a professional basketball team, even if he’s only started playing on it recently.”

 

“Maybe he’s the ‘mistress’ of some sort of big shot? With the cute face he has, I bet there are a lot of dirty old men out there who would pay him for getting their cocks sucked by hi—“ Suddenly, Haizaki’s head was once again hit, this time with triple the violence, and his back bent forward with the strength of the impact. “That hurts as hell, Nijimura! What the fuck do you think you’re doing!?”

 

“Shut up, you damn idiot! Do you even realize the things your stupid mouth is saying? Huh!?” admonished Nijimura, giving one more strike with his fist to the ash haired male. “If you’re jealous that a guy younger than you gets a higher pay than you, then work your ass off as a bodyguard here or get a better paying job elsewhere! Not that anyone would hire a punk like you.”

 

“Blah, blah, blah…” snarled Haizaki, rubbing the back of his head while turning around and walking over to the staff room.

 

“Don’t listen to him, Tetsu,” said Aomine, glaring at the ash haired male as he walked away. “Your job would never be something so disgraceful.”

 

“Yeah. Shougo-kun is just an asshole,” agreed Kise, nodding his head to accentuate his answer even more. He then looked over to the raiven haired male and the redhead. “I don’t even know why you have hired that guy. I bet there’s a lot more good bodyguards out there.”

 

“I would have agreed with you, Kise, if the circumstances were different,” sighed Nijimura, looking back to the table surrounded by the workers and the bluenette.

 

“I apologize for Shougo’s rudeness, Kuroko-kun,” apologized Akashi while giving a quick bow with his head. “He’s the only one among us who has that type of violent sense of self and wording. He doesn’t really do it intentionally, but I guess you must have struck some sort of nerve on him.”

 

_[You don’t need to apologize, Akashi-san. I don’t feel bothered by Haizaki-kun’s words at all.]_

 

“Is that so? I’m glad, then,” acknowledged Akashi while giving a hint of a smile with the slight rise of the corners of his lips. “Then let’s get everything started. We only have a little bit more than an hour until the opening. So each one of you – start doing the final preparations of your respective jobs. Kuroko-kun, you can either help Satsuki-chan or Daiki, since they are the people you are more familiar with, or you can help me and Shuuzou, who will simply be going around everyone’s work stations and check if they are doing things as they should be done or need something to be solved.”

 

Kuroko gave a quick nod with his head and got up from his seat when everyone started scattering around to do their respective jobs. He walked over to Aomine and Momoi and flashed them a quick message through his phone, turning around on his heels afterwards and walking over to the redhead while writing on his cell phone once again. As soon as he reached near the taller male, he gave a quick and soft tug to the back of his suit’s jacket.

 

“Hm?” softly hummed Akashi while turning around to look at what had tugged at his suit. When he fully faced the bluenette, the other male’s cell phone was put near him, in a position that enabled him to read what was written there.

 

_[Thank you very much for allowing Aomine-kun to work here in your nightclub. If he had been left to his own devices while he’s recovering from his severed tendon, I think he would get extremely down and try to hasten the process of recovery by overworking himself during rehabilitation. So thank you very much, Akashi-san. For allowing me to spend time here with him and Momoi-san, too.]_

 

“…” After having read the message written there, Akashi switched his gaze from the screen of the cell phone to the teal eyes of the bluenette and kept staring at him, while being stared in return. “You don’t need to thank me. Daiki is a good worker. He does laze around sometimes, but if he didn’t fulfill my requirements, he wouldn’t have lasted this long. Also, I do agree with Shintarou and Atsushi. Being addressed with ‘san’ by you does make me feel a little bit old and it’s too formal for the current circumstances. I may be older that you but we aren’t that far away in age.”

 

Kuroko quickly turned his cell phone back to himself, erased the last message and wrote another, turning it afterwards to the redhead once again.

 

_[Akashi-kun, then.]_

 

Akashi simply smiled to the smaller male and gave a soft nod with his head in acknowledgment. He observed the bluenette once again collecting his cell phone back to himself and write some more in it.

 

_[Can I ask you something, Akashi-kun?]_

 

“Yes, sure,” acknowledged once again Akashi, the smile still present in his face. For some reason, it was fun to have this sort of conversation with Kuroko, even if the smaller male could only reply to him by the means of his phone.

 

_[What does “Kaiser des Lichts” mean? I know it’s a German phrase and that Kaiser means Emperor. But what is the actual name of this nightclub?]_

 

“Ahahaha,” started laughing Akashi as soon as he finished reading the message. When he saw the bluenette arching slightly an eyebrow at his reaction, he cleared his throat and tried to keep his amusement stored inside of him. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to laugh. It’s just that nobody has ever asked me that in such an upfront way, all of a sudden. It means ‘Emperor of Light’ in German, like you said.”

 

Kuroko returned his eyebrow to his rightful place once again and wrote one more message.

 

_[Why such a name for a nightclub?]_

 

“Well, it’s a secret,” teased Akashi, chuckling softly afterwards when he saw the half-dissatisfied, half-pouting expression in Kuroko’s face. “I may tell you if you tell me what your ‘secret’ job is.”

 

_[Since you said that you only “may” tell me about it, I’ll continue to keep it hidden.]_

_Daiki was right on what he said about Kuroko-kun,_ inwardly added Akashi, chuckling a little bit more at the way his proposal was denied. _He really is observant about his surroundings and knows how to read in between the lines of what other people say._

 

“Is that so? Then if you continue to pay attention to what I say, you _may_ get some clues about it, now and then,” continued Akashi, a small smirk surfacing in his features. “But well, that doesn’t really help me discover which is your job, does it?”

 

_[I don’t really think there are a lot of jobs out there that a college student would be able to do and receive more money that a professional basketball player, so I’m sure you’ll eventually get there.]_

 

“Really? Challenge accepted, then,” answered Akashi, giving a mischievous smirk to the bluenette, who was challengingly looking at him in return.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And the first "challenge" between Kuroko and Akashi has been unleashed XD
> 
> I apologize for Haizaki, that punk... -.-' He'll be hostile towards Kuroko for a while but he'll eventually warm up to him (well, in his own way, I guess).
> 
> Also, have you figured out which is Kuroko's "secret job"?
> 
> Twitter: https://twitter.com/Mafy_mod  
> Tumblr: http://mafymod.tumblr.com/


	3. Weakness

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, minna-san! Mafy's here with one more chapter ^^
> 
> The schedule for this fic has been decided. It will be updated every Saturday - it won't be more times only because I will soon become quite busy with moving out and start to work and blah blah blah...
> 
> Well, enjoy :D

“It seems that everyone’s reaction to Tetsu-kun was better than I expected,” happily said Momoi to the tanned male, keeping her pink eyes on the bluenette as he talked with the redhead.

 

“All of the workers here are a bunch of weirdoes. Some worse than the others but weirdoes nevertheless,” pointed Aomine with a smirk on his features.

 

“You are the last person who can call another ‘weird’,” added Momoi with a teasing tone as she peeked sideways to the taller male.

 

“You’re also included in that list, in case you haven’t noticed,” teased back Aomine, the smirk widening just a fraction. He returned his gaze to the two smaller males and tilted his head slightly. “Though I didn’t expect Akashi to be the one who got friendlier with Tetsu. He’s almost the total opposite of Kise in that regard, after all. I wouldn’t call him anti-social, but he does tend to keep himself away from others when it isn’t necessary.”

 

“Hm… Maybe he’s curious about him,” pointed out Momoi as she thought closely about it. “It isn’t every day that you get to meet a man as fantastic as Tetsu-kun, after all<3”

 

Aomine rolled his eyes while shaking his head just the slightest and crossed his arms over his chest. “But I guess it is good. I feel somewhat unsettled when Tetsu starts to get close to people who I know absolutely nothing about. I wouldn’t call him easily fooled but he does tend to trust others a little bit too much for his own sake. So if he starts to grow closer to our coworkers here in ‘Kaiser’, then I can rest my worries a little bit since all of them are trust-worthy guys. And he’s probably in need to get more friends. The fact that he only has mine, yours, his grandma’s, Kagami’s and a couple other contacts on his cell phone is plainly weird for a 21 years old guy.”

 

“That’s because every time he starts to get close to a new person and you meet them, you scare them off with your almost mother-like protectiveness of him,” explained Momoi while snickering a little bit behind her hand.

 

“Really? And how many of them have you sent to the hospital because of your cooking?” asked Aomine with a mocking tone as he smirked maliciously to the pink haired girl.

 

“Y-You promised you would never bring that up again, Dai-chan!!!” yelped Momoi right away, giving a slap to the upper arm of the tanned male. She turned around in the opposite direction, her cheeks puffed as she sulked at her childhood friend’s words. “Ahomine… Idiot… Stupid… Muscle-headed idiot…”

 

“I was only stating the truth,” added Aomine while shrugging his shoulders a little bit.

 

“You are probably all happy and delighted that you’re always eating at Kagamin’s place, aren’t you?” grudgingly said Momoi, turning around to look at the taller male once again. “Because he cooks very well and all that… The other day, Tetsu-kun was brimming with happiness when he cooked him… Ah… What was the name again? It doesn’t matter! He was all happy while saying that he would like to take Kagamin as his wife because of the food he cooks!!!”

 

“Ahahahaha!” Aomine burst into laughter, immediately clutching at his stomach. When he somehow managed to control himself, he cleaned the corner of his eyes with the back of his fingers and looked over to the pink haired girl, a grin in his face. “You know that will never happen, right?”

 

“I-I know, but it still hurts my feelings, okay!?” shyly yelped Momoi. A familiar cell phone was suddenly shoved to in between her and the tanned male and both of them readily looked sideways, where the bluenette was standing with his usual blank demeanor.

 

_[You two are making too much noise. You’ll bother the other workers that are trying to do their jobs.]_

 

“Sorry…” mumbled both Aomine and Momoi in unison, a little bit of guilt showing in their slightly down-casted faces over the admonishing of the bluenette.

 

“Are you ready to start helping us, Tetsu-kun?” asked Momoi, regaining once again her cheerful demeanor. “I just have to give a final check to the inventory of all the drinks available while Dai-chan takes them out and checks in the kitchen if there’s enough stored in there for the party and that there’s no mistake whatsoever in it.”

 

Kuroko was about to nod his head when Aomine interrupted him by starting to speak once again.

 

“Actually, why don’t you go give a hand to Akashi?” asked Aomine while looking to the bluenette. Both Kuroko and Momoi tilted their heads with incomprehension at that suggestion. “You were having fun while talking with him, right? And if all he’s doing is going around checking everyone’s work, then you will have the chance to talk more with the others. You don’t need to be stuck to us at all moments. We did invite you here today so you could have a good time and relax, after all.”

 

“Well, that’s true…” added Momoi, still a little bit taken aback by the tanned male’s words. However, she quickly broke out of it and smiled brightly to the bluenette. “Go have fun, Tetsu-kun. We will be here if you need anything!”

 

Kuroko looked to the tanned male and then to the pink haired girl, and then switched his gaze back to his cell phone, where he wrote a new message.

 

_[Please don’t walk on eggshells because of me. You are starting to get too overprotective again. Especially you, Aomine-kun. You were rude when you just suddenly grabbed Haizaki-kun’s arm. You don’t need to worry, even if someone points at me. I’m already better at dealing with it.]_

 

“Really?” suspicious asked Aomine, uncrossing his arms and dropping them to the sides of his body. “Then when you suddenly tensed up your whole body when he was about to do it, it must have been a mistake on my behalf.”

 

Kuroko simply averted the taller male’s gaze at those words. He heard him release a soft sigh and when the bluenette started to look back to him, his body shook in fear. As soon as he saw Aomine raising a finger and point it in his direction, Kuroko’s body started teetering just the slightest and he gulped down hard, his eyes dramatically open as he stared at the limb.

 

“Dai-chan!” yelped Momoi right away, starting to panic slightly at what the tanned male was knowingly doing right now.

 

“Sorry, Tetsu,” apologized Aomine while dropping his hand once again. He then raised it one more time and softly ruffled the blue locks of hair of the smaller male. “It wasn’t my intention to scare you, but you need to be aware of your own limits. You might get in trouble if you don’t.”

 

“…” Still looking completely paralyzed to the location where Aomine’s hand had been previously, Kuroko gave a soft nod with his head in acknowledgment.

 

“Tetsu-kun, are you okay?” worriedly asked Momoi, getting closer to the bluenette and giving a soft tug to his sleeve with her fingers. She looked over to the tanned male with an angry expression in her face. “What are you doing, Dai-chan!? You know very well how much Tetsu-kun is scar—“

 

Kuroko quickly raised his hand to stop the pink haired girl from talking and softly smiled at her when she turned around once again to him. He wrote on his cell phone and then showed it to her.

 

_[Don’t worry, Momoi-san. I’m better already. And I understand why Aomine-kun did it so I’m not angry at him or anything. You shouldn’t be, either. He was right on what he said, after all.]_

 

“Tetsu-kun…” softly called Momoi, looking at the bluenette with worry still present in her face.

 

_[And I’ll go help Akashi-kun, like you suggested. If he won’t mind it, of course. I’m not a worker here so I don’t want to bother you while you’re doing your work. If the chance occurs, I’ll try talking with the others too. Though I can’t guarantee that I will get along with everyone.]_

 

“Is that so? Go on, then,” acknowledged Aomine, ruffling the smaller male’s hair one more time while grinning at him. He got a soft smile from the bluenette in return and observed as the smaller male put his cell phone inside of his jacket’s pocket, turning around to search for the redhead.

 

“Is it really okay to let him leave after _that_?” hesitantly asked Momoi while she also observed Kuroko walking away.

 

“I don’t know but probably,” answered Aomine, starting to walk to inside of the counter area so he could finally get his hands at his own work. “Akashi isn’t someone who would point at other people, be it with his fingers or any other object. And, here in the counter and kitchen area, there are a lot of sharp objects, so Tetsu would feel really uncomfortable working in this area. He’s safer walking around with Akashi than here.”

 

“Yes, I have to agree with you on that one,” sighed Momoi while lunging her hand to inside of the counter and searching around with it in one of its hidden divisions. She took a chart with papers attached from there and started running her eyes through the things written in the pages. “Tetsu-kun’s aichmophobia isn’t something to sneeze at, after all.”

 

“Yeah… unfortunately it isn’t…” sighed Aomine while taking a few bottles of their shelves and putting them on top of the counter so they could check their stock level on both paper and in its storage area inside of the kitchen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To those who don't know, aichmophobia is phobia of sharp objects, that can span from needles to knifes and, on the most severe cases, even to fingers being pointed at the person in question. In Kuroko's case, literally any sharp object (including pointing at him with fingers or anything else) serves as a trigger to his phobia. You will get more details about both his aichmophobia and selective mutism as the story develops ^^ (And just to take your mind off the edge - he was NOT raped or sexually abused in any form)
> 
> So well, now you know what to expect from the next chapter, right? Lots and lots of interaction between our lovebirds XD
> 
> Twitter: https://twitter.com/Mafy_mod  
> Tumblr: http://mafymod.tumblr.com/


	4. Affinity

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, minna-san! Mafy's here with another chapter ^.^
> 
> Ready for a sweet, sweet injection of AkaKuro so we can beginning the weekend in the right way?  
> However! You know me, guys~ Things just can't go 100% right with me~ *evil smirk*
> 
> Enjoy :D

Going through the last two pages of the document that Midorima had delivered to him, Akashi nodded his head in agreement and returned it to the green haired male. “Yes, I think this will do. Keep in mind the storage we have available, though. If we have too much of some things and too little of others, it might come out as an unnecessary loss in the future.”

 

“Yes, I’ll keep that in mind,” acknowledged Midorima with a quick adjustment of his glasses. He took the document in his hands once again and started to walk back to the office situated in the upper floor of the nightclub.

 

Akashi was resuming his walk to the DJ booth, where he wanted to confirm with the blonde if all the alterations he had to make to the sound system and all the apparels that also had to be adjusted along with it where completely ready for this night, when the back of his suit’s jacket was once again tugged. He no longer needed to wonder what had tugged it this time.

 

“Yes, Kuroko-kun?” asked Akashi while he turned around to face the bluenette, a soft smile on his face. “Do Daiki and Satsuki-chan need something?”

 

Kuroko took his cell phone from his pocket and quickly wrote a message there, turning the screen around to the redhead after it had been done.

 

_[As far as I know, they don’t. Aomine-kun and Momoi-san kicked me out, actually.]_

 

“They did? Why?” asked Akashi, tilting slightly his head while trying to not laugh once again at the smaller male due to his wording sense.

 

_[They literally told me to spread my wings and fly from the nest. They said I need to interact with other people and have fun. Having said that… Can I help you instead, Akashi-kun? If you don’t mind, of course.]_

 

Kuroko kept looking to the taller male while he read the message. Actually, what he had written was a half lie. He knew Aomine had made him go help the redhead on purpose so he could keep him away from the that area in particular due to his phobia of sharp objects, which usually a kitchen and counter area was filled with. Sometimes, the overprotectiveness that the tanned male and the pink haired girl displayed towards him made him feel a tiny bit mad at them, but he knew that it was simply their way of showing their love and care for him. They didn’t do it with bad intentions. They never did.

 

“I don’t mind at all, Kuroko-kun,” answered Akashi with a smile on his face. “I did tell you earlier that you could help me and Shuuzou doing our rounds around the club. Though there isn’t a lot to do so you might get bored while you’re at it.”

 

_[I don’t think that will happen, so you don’t have to worry. However, where’s Nijimura-san?]_

 

“Shuuzou went to the office upstairs to make some phone calls,” explained Akashi, starting to lead the bluenette to his next stop to check the work being done. “He’ll be back in a few minutes after he finishes them. We’ll be checking Ryouta now.”

 

Kuroko gave a nod with his head and followed after the redhead, a part of him curious about how the DJ booth was and how it truly worked. His curious nature mostly came as a side-effect of his “secret job” but he also had a small personal interest for nightclubs so he really would like to know how things were done on the background.

 

“You’re a college student, aren’t you?” asked Akashi on their way to the booth. He turned his face slightly on the bluenette’s direction and saw him giving a quick nod with his head. “What are you majoring on?”

 

_[Early Childhood Education. I’m on my last year and making preparations to get my teaching license.]_

 

“Kindergarten teacher, then?” asked further Akashi and receiving once again a nod as an answer. “What made you choose that as a future profession? If I can know, of course.”

 

Kuroko looked intently to the taller male for a couple of seconds, thinking closely about that question. He then started to write once again on his cell phone.

 

_[I guess it’s because I like children. Teaching them and playing with them is rewarding, even if they are not my own. Also, I wouldn’t be able to teach older children due to my own limitations so I opted for kindergarten level. Though if I could have truly chosen what kind of teacher I would be, I would have aimed for teaching Ancient Literature. However, I never regretted going for kindergarten teacher. The month I spent working in a small kindergarten as an assistant teacher was extremely interesting and I learned a lot with it.]_

 

“You could still have tried to aim for it,” pointed out Akashi after having read the whole message. When he saw the bluenette tilting slightly his head in confusion, he continued explaining. “You could resort to video and audio lessons. Different types of presentations and worksheets, too.”

 

Kuroko once again thought closely about it and wrote a new message, switching the screen to the redhead afterwards.

 

_[True, I could do that. However, those types of teaching methods aren’t wildly used here in Japan. Actually, some of them aren’t even recognized as 100% good teaching methods yet by the most conservative schools and educational boards. And seeing as I can’t speak, I would have to use those methods in every lesson. I wouldn’t be able to get a job in any high school that way.]_

 

“You really have given a thought to all possibilities, didn’t you?” added Akashi, giving a soft smile to the bluenette.

 

_[Of course I did. It’s about my own future so I need to take it seriously. I went through all my choices and options during my third year of high school and then went forward with the one that enabled me the best path to achieve my dreams.]_

 

“That’s a praise-worthy way of seeing things,” suddenly confessed Akashi, ruffling softly the blue locks of hair of the smaller male. “I don’t know your circumstances at all, but I do believe that most people wouldn’t see it the same way as you do. Most of them would have settled with ‘I won’t be able to achieve this so I better give up and find another thing to do’ but you didn’t. That’s amazing, Tetsuya.”

 

“…!” Kuroko felt his entire face being set ablaze when he heard Akashi complimenting his way of thinking and calling him by his first name, like he did with all the other workers of the nightclub, he had noticed. With awkward and clumsy movements, he motioned his hand up and started removing the redhead’s hand that was still on top of his head.

 

“Ah, I’m sorry,” apologized Akashi while dropping his hand back to the side of his body, smiling softly to the smaller male. “I fell back to the habit of addressing others by their first name. I won’t do it if you don’t like it. Or try, at least. Old habits die hard, right?”

 

With even clumsier movements, Kuroko started writing on his cell phone while trying to reduce the blush in his features to less noticeable colors. After he finished the new message, having to make several corrections to the typos he inadvertently made while writing it, the bluenette showed the screen once again to the taller male, averting slightly his gaze from him.

 

_[I don’t mind which way you call me. Please address to me the way you are more used to or feel more comfortable with.]_

 

“Is that so? Tetsuya it is, then,” agreed Akashi with a quick nod of his head. They arrived at the DJ booth at that moment so the redhead returned his relaxed facial expression to his usual demeanor when on working hours. He entered inside of the booth and looked down to the table where all the electronic devices had been put, Kise underneath it while going through several types of wires. “Ryouta, how are things here?”

 

“Oh, Akashicchi~” greeted Kise, taking his head from underneath the table and peeking at the readhead. “And Kuroko-kun, I see! Everything is a-okay around here. I was just testing some of the wires to see if they wouldn’t suddenly disconnect or something and ruin the show.”

 

“What about the alterations you made to it?” asked further Akashi, running his red and golden eyes through the entire electronic equipment displayed there.

 

“Everything was done perfectly~” answered Kise, giving a thumbs up to the redhead. “You probably heard me testing everything this morning, right? I didn’t find any problem whatsoever with it and those that were listening also didn’t notice anything. So everything is completely ready for me to shine tonight!”

 

“Good,” acknowledged Akashi with a quick and sharp nod of his head. “Once you are done double checking everything, go meet with Shintarou or Shuuzou so you can tell them if there’s any equipment or wires that will soon need to be replaced due to usage or to have as a spare, just in case some problem arises.”

 

“Sure thing, Akashicchi~” acknowledged Kise with a satisfied grin. He lowered his head once again and returned to what he had been doing underneath the table. However, when both the redhead and bluenette were starting to leave, he popped up his head out once again. “Oh, Akashicchi! If Murasakibaracchi has any more of those pastries left to taste-test, tell him to save some for me. I get hungry while I’m back here playing music after all~”

 

“I’ll see what I can do,” shortly acknowledged Akashi while moving outside of the DJ booth. He looked over to the smaller male and urged him to follow with a little jerk of his head. “Let’s move on to the next post, Tetsuya.”

 

Giving an affirmative nod with his head, Kuroko started walking beside the taller male, looking down to his cell phone while he wrote yet another message.

 

_[Why is it that Kise-kun addresses to all of you with “-cchi” in the end of your names?]_

 

“Ah… Well, he says that it’s his way of showing respect for others,” explained Akashi, giving a quick chuckle at being asked that. “But I don’t really know the whole story so you should ask him that yourself.”

 

_[I will. Can I make one more question?]_

 

“Of course, Tetsuya,” acknowledged Akashi with a soft nod. A small smirk surfaced on his lips afterwards, though. “As long as it’s not about why I named the nightclub this way. You said you would discover that by yourself, after all.”

 

_[I know that. That’s why I want to make you this question, Akashi-kun.]_

 

“Then go for it,” added Akashi, chuckling at the blank expression that fully appeared on his expressionless features. He was starting to notice that the bluenette actually wasn’t as expressionless as he made it seem.

 

_[You told Kise-kun to go relate to Midorima-kun or Nijimura-san about the equipment that could need to be replaced in the near future. However, isn’t this nightclub only going to open today? Why would you need to substitute parts this quickly?]_

 

“Actually, this isn’t the first opening of this nightclub. Well, of this space, to be more precise,” started explaining Akashi with amusement running around inside of his mind. “Three years ago, more or less, another nightclub existed in here. It went out of business and the whole building was closed down up until I bought the office upstairs. I saw that I could make some profit out of this big space underneath of the office and decided to reopen the nightclub. However, I did make a lot of changes to it. Including the name. Some of the already existing equipment in the DJ booth is being used from the previous nightclub era, so there are some parts that are pretty used up and old. We didn’t replace them only because Ryouta said it would be a waste of money, seeing as they are still functional. It was exactly because of that that he needed to make some alterations to a lot of the electric devises since they were outdated.”

 

_[Kise-kun sure sounds like an expert in that regard, the way you are speaking. You are making him seem like a smart person.]_

 

“I think Ryouta would be happy to hear you say that,” answered Akashi, chuckling in an amusing manner at the misconception that the bluenette was starting to house about the blonde. “However, if you truly get to know him, you will find out that he isn’t as smart as he seems. You’ll get disappointed, actually.”

 

_[I think I know what you are trying to say. When he arrived to the table, he actually sat on my lap, accidentally. From that alone, I don’t really think he is that much of a bright person. Though even idiots have something they are good at, like Aomine-kun has proved. Apparently it’s being a DJ that Kise-kun is at his best.]_

 

“Ahahahaha,” started laughing Akashi while coming to a sudden halt. Seeing Kuroko saying that a taller male had sat on his lap as an accident while displaying a pretty much expressionless semblance was… “Did he really not notice you were there and sat on top of you?”

 

Kuroko simply nodded at it, trying to not start laughing himself at the exact same thing that the redhead was. He somehow managed to keep it sealed off but he couldn’t really stop the slight upturn of the corners of his lips.

 

Taking a deep breath so he could stop laughing, Akashi resumed once again with his walking together with the smaller male, his amusement about the unexpected situation occurring today escalating more and more.

 

 _Tetsuya is far surpassing my initial impression of him. I can’t believe I’m actually having this much fun while talking with a person whose existence I only knew about through some circumstantial conversations that sometimes occurred here in the nightclub. He’s just too cute of a person to be real,_ inwardly voiced Akashi while still chuckling softly.

 

When the redhead turned his head once again to the bluenette, he saw him writing one more message in his phone. Akashi could only wonder what kind of amusing thing he would tell him this time. After a couple of seconds, the smaller male turned his phone around in his direction.

 

_[So there was another club here before… Which was its name?]_

 

“Ah… You’re definitely going to laugh at the terrible naming sense of the previous owners. I definitely would never give such a name to a nightclub, not even as a prank. But well, I do have good taste. I think that was probably why it went bankrupt,” started Akashi, talking in a teasingly roundabout way about it to see what would be Kuroko’s reaction to it. The bluenette’s expression remained the exact same but he could see a slight fidgeting in his body. The redhead masked a quick laugh with his hand and finally decided to reveal the name. “It was called ‘Catch a Booze’.”

 

“…!” Kuroko immediately lunged his hands up and covered his mouth, soundlessly laughing at what was probably the most ridiculous name in the whole nightclub history. Taking a deep breath and lowering his hands once again, he started writing on his cell phone one more time, showing it afterwards to the taller male.

 

_[That was probably the worst pun that I have ever heard. I don’t think even Aomine-kun or Kagami-kun would have such a terrible idea and both of them are idiots. I wonder what exactly were the previous owners thinking? Or not thinking, in this case. I have to agree with you, Akashi-kun. You have far better taste and naming sense than they had.]_

 

“Why, thank you,” said Akashi, softly smiling at the bluenette. There was a part of him that felt happier about Kuroko complimenting him like that than when other people told him the same thing. It somehow sounded genuine when it was the smaller male doing it. Genuine and without ulterior motives. “Okay, we arrived to the next stop.”

 

“Yo, Tetsu!” greeted Aomine while taking a bottle on his hand and shaking it softly so he could calculate how much liquid it still had inside. “Back already?”

 

“We’re going to check the tables Atsushi is preparing with those pastries you tasted,” explained Akashi when Kuroko looked at him with a quizzical expression. When he saw the glint of enthusiasm in the teal eyes of the smaller male, the redhead couldn’t help the soft chuckle that escaped his throat. “Why don’t we make a small pause there? Maybe Atsushi still has some of the taste-testing samples in the kitchen?”

 

Breaking out of the spell that the word “pastries” made him be enslaved to, Kuroko readily started to write in his cell phone and then turned it around to the taller male.

 

_[No, it’s okay. We can continue to make the rounds and check everyone’s work. I’m not tired or hungry, so please don’t mind me.]_

 

“Well, it just happens that _I_ am hungry, so you’ll have to tag along,” pointed out Akashi with a mischievous smirk. “And I think it isn’t very nice to eat all by myself when with others around, so you’ll have to accompany me, Tetsuya.”

 

“Be careful, Tetsu. Akashi may be trying to win you over with sweets,” teasingly warned Aomine, putting his forearms on the counter while leaning his body closer to where the bluenette and redhead had stopped.

 

Kuroko twisted his nose a little bit at what the tanned male had said and looked down to his cell phone, quickly writing a message on it.

 

_[Aomine-kun, I don’t think I’m someone who lets himself be conquered with the prospect of getting sweets in return. I’m not like you, who were seduced by Kagami-kun’s cooking, despise your constant initial persistence that you “did NOT like his food”.]_

 

“O-Okay, okay! I get it!” yelped Aomine in a flustered way, a soft shade of pink in his tanned cheeks as he waved his hands in front of his body so that the bluenette would erase that message the quickest he could. “Don’t start reminiscing on old stuff!”

 

_[You must have wanted to say “embarrassing” instead of “old”.]_

 

“Oh, shut it!” yelped Aomine one more time, his blush intensifying slightly. He turned his back to the two smaller males and continued to check the different bottles, grudgingly muttering to the bluenette. “Just go stuff yourself with sweets already! See if I care if you get fat!”

 

Kuroko softly snorted at that and turned around to face the redhead once again, who was looking at him with a slight amused face. He softly arched an eyebrow and tilted his head while he continued to stare at him.

 

“Well, shall we go to Atsushi, then?” asked Akashi, suppressing a chuckle. He saw the smaller male straightening his head once again and then nod in acknowledgment, and resumed with their way to the said tables. Once they were at a considerable distance from the counter, Akashi looked over to the bluenette. “What sort of dirt do you have on Daiki to get that reaction out of him?”

 

_[I’m his childhood friend. I have a LOT of dirt on him. I can always rest assured with him around. I know that if I ever go through financial problems, I can extort money out of him by using the said “dirt” to threaten him. You wouldn’t believe half of it if I told you…]_

 

“You have quite the evil mind, Tetsuya,” pointed out Akashi, having given a brief laugh before at the complete blank expression on the smaller male’s face. He soon settled himself and looked over in his direction once again. “Though Daiki isn’t quite that smart, so I don’t think he would know if you were extorting him.”

 

_[Yes, I fear for his future.]_

 

Akashi chuckled once again at Kuroko’s slightly worried semblance and looked to in front of him. They had arrived to the tables being arranged, the purple haired giant skirting around one of them while carefully adjusting the plates. “Atsushi, how are things around here?”

 

“Oh, Aka-chin…” greeted Murasakibara while turning his head in the direction the voice had come from. “Everything is mostly done. Only… hmm… three more plates that need to be brought here from the kitchen.”

 

“Perfect,” acknowledged Akashi with a quick nod of his head. “Do you still have more pastries left from the taste-testing batch? Ryouta asked if you could save some for him to eat while he’s working in the DJ booth during the opening.”

 

“Yeah, I have some of them left,” answered Murasakibara while fully turning his body around to talk with the redhead. “Mido-chin asked me to save him one of them, but I can give the rest t—“

 

When the purple haired giant had completely faced in their direction, Kuroko immediately jumped at the sight. His teal eyes dilated in a scared motion as he kept his gaze continuously on the cake spatula in Murasakibara’s hands and he immediately lunged his hands to his stomach, clutching desperately at it as he took shaky steps backwards.

 

“Tetsuya?” called Akashi, slightly arching an eyebrow as he looked to the frightened demeanor of the bluenette.

 

_“Tetsuya, I hate you! You should have never been born!”_

 

“…!” Bending over his stomach slightly, Kuroko immediately turned around and started running off in the direction he had came from with Akashi. He clutched desperately at his stomach, never looking down.

 

He was far too scared to see his clothes once again soaked in his own blood.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First cliffhanger of Break My Silence - achieved! Muwahahahaha!
> 
> How will things develop from here on out, I wonder~
> 
> Twitter: https://twitter.com/Mafy_mod  
> Tumblr: http://mafymod.tumblr.com/


	5. Eye-Opener

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, minna-san! Mafy's here with a new chapter ^.^
> 
> Since last chapter I ended it with a cliffhanger, I decided to be merciful (for once in my life, hehehe~) and give you a little bit of info about Kuroko's circumstances. But I'm not that merciful so~ Read to find out why ;D
> 
> Enjoy!

Searching around with his red and golden eyes through the area near the counter, Akashi walked over to where Aomine was writing on a bunch of papers, possibly registering some drink that they would soon run on low.

 

“Daiki, have you seen Tetsuya?” asked Akashi as soon as he stopped in front of the tanned male.

 

“Tetsu?” repeated Aomine, raising his eyes from the papers. He tilted slightly his head and arched an eyebrow at that strange question. “Wasn’t he with you?”

 

“He was but he just suddenly ran off,” explained Akashi, once again giving a thought to what he had seen. The bluenette almost seemed like he was looking at the devil himself when Murasakibara turned around to talk with them – a completely frightened expression popped up all of a sudden, without any apparent reason for him to explain.

 

“Ran off?” repeated Aomine once again, completely lost on the conversation. He straightened his whole body all of a sudden when an extremely bad feeling started creeping up in his head. “What exactly was happening when Tetsu ran away?”

 

“We were simply talking with Atsushi about eating something, as well as about giving some of the taste-testing pastries to Ryouta and Shintarou,” explained once again Akashi, getting slightly more confused with the current behavior of the taller male. For lack of better words, Aomine seemed completely restless right now.

 

“Murasakibara? Argh…” Aomine motioned his hand up and ruffled his hair, gripping tightly at his own head as he was starting to understand what had happened. “He had something on his hands, didn’t he?”

 

“Yes, a cake spatula,” shortly acknowledged Akashi, arching slightly an eyebrow. What did have the fact that the purple haired giant had something on his hands to do with the bluenette running away like it would save his life?

 

“Fuck…” cursed Aomine, dropping the pen he was holding on top of the papers and motioning around to outside of the counter area to start searching around for the smaller male. “Shit, I thought that since he would be walking around with you, Tetsu would be safe. But I completely forgot that Murasakibara would be working around with the sweets and all and that he could have on him things like that.”

 

“I’m not following,” pointed out Akashi, now definitely lost in the whole exchange of words. When Aomine passed by him and entered deeper into the nightclub, Akashi followed after him, waiting for more easy to understand details to be revealed about this particular situation.

 

“It’ll probably come in late, but oh well…” started mumbling Aomine under his breath. He came to a sudden halt and turned around to the redhead, staring intently at him. “You probably want to befriend Tetsu, right? There’s a few rules you must be aware of if you want to make it go well and not cause any… lasting damages.”

 

“Okay…” hesitantly acknowledged Akashi, looking to the tanned male with a certain suspicion. What did he mean exactly by ‘rules’ and ‘lasting damages’?

 

“Rule number one!” started Aomine, raising a finger in front of his body as he gave a jerk with his head for them to continue walking around while talking. That way he could probably find his childhood friend’s current hiding place more quickly, as well as try to fix any problem that may have showed up. “I know you’re not exactly a person that does any of these things, but I just want to play safe. Don’t point with your fingers or anything else to Tetsu. If you see someone trying to do it, stop them. Even if you have to throw them off to the floor to prevent it from happening!”

 

“Okay,” acknowledged Akashi once again, giving a small nod with his head as he tried to make an explanation for such a ‘rule’ in his head. He couldn’t really make heads or tails of it, but now he understood why the tanned male had suddenly grabbed Haizaki’s arm when they were all talking.

 

“Second rule! If he isn’t expecting it, don’t touch or hug him,” continued Aomine, taking a peek to inside of a room after having opened the door that lead to it. He searched around with his eyes but didn’t see anyone inside, so he once again closed it. “So keep an eye around Kise since he’s the ‘stickiest’ person I have ever known in my entire life. Tetsu can somewhat tolerate the usual greetings, like handshakes or Satsuki’s bear hugs, but he feels uncomfortable when others touch him. He also rarely touches others because of it so if he touches you in any way, consider yourself extremely lucky.”

 

“Okay,” acknowledged Akashi, this time a little bit more confidently and less suspiciously. He still wasn’t really into this whole explanation but, from what the tanned male had just said, he was lucky that Kuroko had tugged at his clothes two times. And that he, in a roundabout way, allowed him to ruffle his hair. Hmm… It seemed this one would be a tough rule to follow since Kuroko looked quite adorable when he touched his head and ran his fingers through his silky blue strands of hair.

 

“There are quite a few more other smaller rules, but I’ll fill you in to the most important ones for now. You’ll get the gist of it as you spend time with him, after all,” continued Aomine, once again coming to a sudden stop and turning around to face the redhead, an even more serious demeanor on his features. “But there’s a rule that is really, reaaaaally important to always follow. It’s the most fundamental one to stop any disaster from happening.”

 

“Which is?” asked Akashi, frowning slightly at the upgrade of the seriousness of the conversation. He had a feeling that the next ‘rule’ would have something to do with why Kuroko had ran off when he saw Murasakibara and, to be honest, it was making the redhead really worried, taking into consideration the tanned male’s last words.

 

“Don’t let him, under any circumstance, see sharp objects. Especially if other people are holding them,” explained Aomine in a quite hesitant way. He rubbed the back of his neck for a few seconds and then let his hand drop to the side of his body once again, releasing a long sigh. “He really can’t tolerate seeing sharp objects, from kitchen instruments to tools and other things of that type. Sometimes even things as simple and harmless as chopsticks or pens and pencils. That’s why I said earlier that I was worried about him living by himself, since he just… can’t cook like we can. He can’t see most things that we can find in the kitchen, let alone touch or use them. Especially knifes! Don’t _ever_ let him see a knife, whichever size or shape it may have!”

 

“Why?” simply asked Akashi, the frown on his features getting more accentuated. One thing was disliking knifes – they were dangerous objects if people weren’t careful while using them. But going as far as not being able to cook in a normal way or fear chopsticks… What exactly had happened to Kuroko for him to get such an abnormally accentuated aversion to all of those things?

 

“Tetsu has a very severe case of aich… Huh? Right, aichmophobia!” elaborated Aomine, having to make a stop at his own words so he could remember the complicated name that the bluenette’s phobia had. “He has phobia of sharp objects. It’s a trauma that he has due to… well, reasons. I would tell you about it but… I don’t know if Tetsu would really be okay with me doing it. I mean… it’s his life, not mine. So if you want further details about it, you’ll have to talk it out with him. This is as far as I can go on giving you information about him and his circumstances.”

 

“Yes, I also wouldn’t like it if someone suddenly started to talk about my whole life to a person who I only met in a couple of hours,” acknowledged Akashi, giving a short nod with his head. He saw Aomine also nodding in acknowledgment at his answer and then turn around once again to search for the missing bluenette. After hearing all that, the redhead also decided to help the tanned male on the searching, not only follow after him. “Do you have any idea where Tetsuya might have gone?”

 

“I don’t really know for sure,” answered Aomine, peeking to the sharp corner that the area of the dance floor had which connected to the toilets destined to the customers. He kept his gaze there, searching around through the shadows to see if he could find the bluenette in that area. “He does tend to hide into places he’s familiar with and feels safe in. But he’s never been here before so I don’t know where h— WOAH!!!”

 

Akashi readily looked over to the tanned male when he heard him scream in surprise. He saw Aomine grabbing unto the wall in a pretty pathetic way… and Kuroko was simply staring at him like it was an everyday occurrence. The redhead immediately walked over to both of them.

 

“Jesus Christ, Tetsu! Do you want to scare me to death!?” yelped Aomine, his heart thundering madly in his ribcage. He released the wall and straightened his body, looking intently to the smaller male. “Are you okay? Any… you know, _danger_?”

 

Kuroko simply continued to stare to the tanned male, observing him closely. He took a quick sideways glance to Akashi, who was walking in their direction, and then returned his gaze to tanned male, shaking his head softly.

 

“Then you’re fine? Really?” asked once again Aomine, feeling his heartbeat starting to slow down. When he saw Kuroko nodding in acknowledgment, the tanned male could only sigh in relief. “Oh thank god…”

 

Kuroko gave a quick twist to his lips, softly smiling to Aomine, and then took his cell phone out of his pocket, starting to write on it. Akashi shortly arrived to near them and was about to speak when the bluenette turned the screen of his phone in his direction.

 

_[I apologize for disappearing like that, Akashi-kun. It was rude of me to just run off in such a way.]_

 

“Don’t worry about it. But are you feeling okay, Tetsuya?” asked Akashi right away, lifting his eyes from the cell phone’s screen. He saw Kuroko staring at him with a quizzical expression for a few seconds and then give a soft nod with his head in acknowledgment.

 

Turning the cell phone once again to himself, Kuroko erased the last message and then wrote another one, switching the screen to Aomine this time. Aomine immediately felt a shiver ran down his spine when he saw the bluenette glaring slightly at him.

 

_[Can I know what exactly have you been blabbing about behind my back, Aomine Daiki-kun?]_

 

“Ah… um… I just gave a small heads-up to Akashi so that any problem can be avoided?” hesitantly answered Aomine, taking a few steps backwards. When angered, Kuroko had the deadly tendency of gut-punching people – he knew especially well how much it hurt to be attacked by the small, scrawny fists of the bluenette, seeing as he has been experiencing it in first person since they were kids. It was honestly something to dread.

 

_[Oh, is that so? Then I guess I should also start giving “small heads-up” to others about your life.]_

 

“I-I’m sorry, Tetsu. I didn’t mean harm by it but y—“ started explained Aomine but was interrupted when the bluenette suddenly lifted his hand and put it in front of his face so he would shut up. He saw Kuroko releasing an inaudible sigh and then dropping his arm, writing on his cell phone once again.

 

_[I’m sorry I got angry at you. I’ve caused you trouble, making you explain it to Akashi-kun, didn’t I? And I’m sure you didn’t tell him anything that I would feel uncomfortable with him knowing. You probably told him about what you and Momoi-san call the “rules”, right?]_

 

“Y-Yeah! I only told him about the rules. And I didn’t really elaborate all that much, either, since we were searching for you,” readily declared Aomine, relaxing his body since the bluenette didn’t seem ready to gut-punch him or do anything else. He cleared his throat and tried to change the topic of the conversation to less dangerous ones. For him, that is. “Anyway, where did you run off to?”

 

_[Do I really need to tell you that, Aomine-kun? I’m already here so I would appreciate it if you didn’t ask more questions. Please.]_

 

“I’m not trying to interrogate you, I’m just—“ When Aomine saw the adamant look on the smaller male’s face, he released another sigh while scratching his head. The tanned male dropped his hand to the side of his body and started walking out of the corridor that connected to the toilets, giving a quick jerk with his head so the bluenette would also get out of that area. “I can see that you’re more or less fine, by the look on your face. But if you don’t want me to interfere or give my own version of things to others, you’ll have to do it yourself, Tetsu. Akashi may have shrugged it off easily but I know he’s quite worried. And if I can see that, then you should know it even better, you ‘people-watching specialist’.”

 

After observing Aomine walking further inside of the nightclub, in the counter’s direction, and disappear in a corner, Kuroko also motioned out of the corridor and stopped near Akashi, feeling somewhat awkward over the tanned male’s last remark.

 

He hesitantly peeked sideways to the redhead and, when their eyes met, Akashi softly smiled at him.

 

“Are you still up for those sweets?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I did say I wasn't that merciful... so I ended the chapter with another cliffhanger :P But, as expected, next chapter will be filled with AkaKuro interactions so I hope you forgive me, even if just a little *does puppy eyes*
> 
> About our lovely bluenette... *sigh* I did say that his case of aichmophobia was a hard thing to deal with (specially for him). But, just like Akashi, you will get to know more about it as the story develops further. Because yes, just like in all of my fics, there's a reason behind everything that I write about.
> 
> Twitter: https://twitter.com/Mafy_mod  
> Tumblr: http://mafymod.tumblr.com/


	6. Ground Zero

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, minna-san! Mafy's here with another chapter ^.^
> 
> Ready to experience cuteness overload? (which develops inside of a supposedly only serious conversation) Be careful with your sugar levels and enjoy ;D

“Have a seat there, Tetsuya, and I’ll be right back,” told Akashi to the bluenette, pointing at a table placed in the farthest corner of the area surrounding the bar counter. The area that the redhead had indicated was filled with cushioned benches attached to the wall, the tables separated by short walls with a small wooden lattice on top. The bluenette looked over in his direction and gave a short nod, not fully looking him in the eyes, and Akashi nodded in acknowledgment, walking away at the same time as the smaller male moved over to the said table.

 

Kuroko sat down in one of the cushioned benches and nervously fiddled with his cell phone, his forearms positioned on the surface of the table. Every once in a while, he raised his gaze and looked over in the direction where the redhead had disappeared to, only to quickly drop it once again to his hands and the electronic device there.

 

To be honest, he was _terrible_ at explaining this sort of thing to others. No matter how he put it, he was always overcome with the impression that the other party would only look at him with pity and nothing more from then on. Which was what wound up happening pretty much every time that he had to do it. And that only made him want to avoid said conversation with Akashi even more.

 

He had a pretty good time chatting with the redhead before _that_ happened. Even with the handicap the bluenette had, Akashi actually tried to push him forward on what he wanted to do with his future and even congratulated him about his way of thinking in that regard. But… that must have been completely erased from his mind now that he knew how truly weak he was.

 

“I’m back,” announced Akashi, putting a tray on top of the table. The bluenette jumped slightly on his seat as he did so and the redhead couldn’t help but chuckle at it. He quickly skirted around the table and sat down on the seat next to the smaller male. “I’ve brought Earl Grey tea and some slices of meringue lemon tart. Are you okay with it?”

 

Kuroko stiffly straightened his back and hesitantly nodded his head in acknowledgment to the food that was being provided to him. The redhead picked one of the plates and gave it to the bluenette, pouring the tea in one of cups afterwards and also giving it to him. All Kuroko could do was bow his head slightly in appreciation and set his late afternoon snack in front of him so he could eat it. He motioned his hand forward to the tray to pick up a fork for his pastry and readily noticed that there was no knifes in there. Kuroko twisted his nose a bit at that fact – it meant that yet another person was already walking on egg’s shells around him.

 

Bringing the fork to the plate with the slice of tart, Kuroko let the silverware rest on the brim of the dish and picked up his cell phone, immediately opening the text editor. He took a sideways glance to the redhead, who had busied himself by pouring sugar in his own drink and then slowly stirring the liquid with a spoon, and then looked down to the cell phone, quickly writing on it. After he was done, he put the device on top of the table and softly pushed it in the taller male’s direction.

 

“Hm?” Akashi looked down to near his arm and saw the bluenette’s cell phone there. Since he wasn’t really sure if he was supposed to pick it up like Aomine and Momoi sometimes did, he simply let it remain on the surface of the table and read what was written there.

 

_[Once again, I apologize for running off like that when we were going to check on Murasakibara-kun’s work. It was really rude of me to do it, even if you weren’t aware of my circumstances at the time. I’m sorry for having worried you, too, Akashi-kun.]_

 

“Like I said before, you don’t need to apologize,” sighed Akashi, looking sideways to the bluenette as he softly blew the piping hot tea on his cup. He gave a quick sip to see if the flavor was to his taste and put the cup on the saucer. “From what I understood, it’s something that you can’t stop yourself from doing, right? Then I don’t really understand why you are apologizing for the second time about the same thing.”

 

Kuroko kept staring to the redhead for a few seconds and then picked up his cell phone once again, erasing the message he had written so he could put another one there. After he was finished writing it, he did the same thing with his cell phone once again.

 

_[I’ll try to not apologize, then. But I do feel bad for both you and Aomine-kun. I know he wouldn’t say anything that I disliked, but I made him explain things to you which isn’t supposedly his job to. I should have said something earlier, even if it was only a small warning. I guess I sort of forgot about it since I was having fun.]_

 

“…” Akashi lifted his eyes from the cell phone and looked over to the bluenette, who was fidgeting just the slightest as he looked down to his food. A soft smile popped up in his features and he motioned his hand forward, giving a quick pat to the smaller male’s head and then letting his hand remain there for a few seconds. When Kuroko looked over at him, an eyebrow slightly arched, the redhead’s smile widened a little bit. “If you eat all of your food, then I’ll accept your apologies and we won’t touch on this subject again. Deal?”

 

The bluenette peered over to the taller male with a slight suspicion and then picked up his cell phone, writing on it and then turning the screen over to Akashi.

 

_[Am I some sort of child to being told that? I would eat everything even if you didn’t tell me to.]_

 

“Really?” teasingly asked Akashi, removing his hand from the bluenette’s head. “Ah… Now that I think about it, Daiki did comment on it a couple of time. Do you have that big of a sweet tooth?”

 

Kuroko readily averted the redhead’s gaze, a soft shade of pink dusting his cheeks. He turned his cell phone back to himself and wrote on it, switching it afterwards to the taller male, a sort of dissatisfied expression mixed with the blush appearing on his features.

 

_[Is there any problem that I have a sweet tooth? I do try to take a healthy lifestyle so I compensate all the sugar I eat by cooking healthy meals and do exercise whenever I can. Or is it weird that a 21-years old male likes to eat pastries as one of his hobbies?]_

 

“I’m not saying that there’s any problem or that it’s weird,” explained Akashi, chuckling softly at the pouting expression of the smaller male. “But I do think it’s funny how your eyes get all sparkly when you eat them.”

 

Rolling his eyes slightly, Kuroko quickly wrote a new message and put the cell phone on top of the table, near the redhead’s arm.

 

_[Are you trying to mimic Aomine-kun and Momoi-san now? Please don’t say I get all sparkly when I eat sweets. It sounds more like you’re making fun of me than actually saying something positive.]_

 

“Ahahaha. I’m sorry about that, Tetsuya,” apologized Akashi after a brief laugh. He picked up the sugar bowl and motioned it over in the bluenette’s direction. “Do you want sugar for your tea?”

 

Kuroko simply stared to the redhead with a completely blank face, observing intently the mischievous smirk on his features. He took the sugar bowl on his hands and put a spoon of sugar of his drink. With one of his hands, he wrote another message in his cell phone and then gave a quick flick to it so it would rotate in Akashi’s direction. The bluenette picked up his teaspoon and mixed his hot tea leisurely.

 

_[Aomine-kun says I have the frightening habit of gut-punching people when I get annoyed at the things they say. Please do be careful, Akashi-kun.]_

 

“Duly noted,” acknowledged Akashi in between chuckles. He motioned his hand forward and grabbed the fork, taking a small piece of the meringue lemon tart and leading it to his mouth. “Can I make you a couple of questions? I’ll try to not be very intrusive but, just like you said, I had fun while I was chatting with you. So I don’t want to cause you any future distress. Well, if we meet once again, that is.”

 

Taking the spoon out of the teacup and softly bumping it on the edge to shake off the liquid before putting it down on the saucer, Kuroko picked up the cup and gave a few blows to the liquid while writing on the cell phone with his free hand. He gave a quick sip to the extremely hot liquid and then put it back down, switching the screen to the taller male.

 

_[“I don’t want to because we won’t meet again.” Did you think I was thinking that? Like I said, I had fun while talking with you, Akashi-kun. And that’s something that usually only happens when I’m with Aomine-kun or Momoi-san or Kagami-kun, a friend of ours. Except those three people and my grandmother, I’m not exactly the most social of human beings. So I guess, in a way, ask what you want.]_

 

“…” Akashi kept staring to the cell phone, taking in the words being said there by reading them a second time. And then a third. On his own roundabout way, Kuroko had said they would meet again. He had said that they could be friends, like he was with Aomine and Momoi.

 

 _Why exactly am I happy with the prospect of meeting with Tetsuya once again but annoyed at the fact it will be done under the label of “friends” when I met him a couple of hours ago?,_ inwardly pointed out Akashi as he lifted his heterochromatic eyes from the screen and peered over in the smaller male’s direction, who was delightfully (aka with sparkling eyes) chewing a bit of the tart. He released a soft sigh and picked up once again his cup of tea, sipping at the slightly colder hot beverage. _You are becoming a strange person, Akashi Seijuurou._

 

“How long have you not been able to speak?” asked Akashi as he separated his lips briefly from the teacup. He saw the bluenette motion his hand to his cell phone and write on it through the corner of his eyes. When Kuroko withdrew his hand from the devise, he looked over to it.

 

_[Close to six years now.]_

 

“Daiki called it selective mutism. So it isn’t like you can’t physically talk but just... won’t?” asked further Akashi, following with his eyes as Kuroko once again motioned his hand to his cell phone while with the other he led the fork with another piece of the pastry to his mouth.

 

_[Not exactly. But I guess you can think of it like that. Most people do and both Aomine-kun and Momoi-san have come to think of it that way too, throughout the years.]_

 

“And how long have you had your aichmophobia?” asked afterwards Akashi, also taking a little bit of his own slice of tart in his mouth.

 

_[Close to six years too.]_

 

“Are they related to each other?” asked once again Akashi after having swallowed the sweet-and-sour small chunk. Kuroko visibly shook at the question and indecisively maintained his hand hovering over the cell phone, as if pondering if he should really answer that question. Not that it would be needed. His reaction was more than enough. “Never mind. What other ‘rules’ are there?”

 

Kuroko swallowed the big lump that had been formulated on his throat and lowered his hand to his cell phone, writing on it.

 

_[How many “rules” have you heard from Aomine-kun?]_

 

“Three. Daiki said those were the most important ones and that I would get to learn about the other ones as I got to know you,” answered Akashi, drinking a little bit more of tea afterwards.

 

_[Then there isn’t much to know about anymore. Aomine-kun must have told you to not point at me with anything, not even fingers, to not touch me needlessly and to not let me see sharp objects, right? Those are the same things he always tells other people when I meet them. Most of the time secretly, which is why he’s so well acquainted with my fists.]_

 

“You don’t seem all that happy about having Daiki on your side,” pointed out Akashi while arching slightly an eyebrow. He saw Kuroko inaudibly release a sigh and then motion the fork with a little piece of the tart to his mouth, chewing on it with a dissatisfied expression on his face as he wrote again on the cell phone.

 

_[It’s not that I’m not happy about it. But sometimes it gets tiresome. Aomine-kun and Momoi-san take their overprotectivess to the extreme sometimes. They just don’t seem to realize that I’m not the same person that I was during high school. It might bother me so some degree, I can’t deny that, but it’s not like I’m going to break like a glass ball dropped on the floor if someone points at me or pats my head like you do. I don’t think that anyone likes it, but I really dislike the thought of being pitied by others. I’m probably already being pitied by you too. But people tend to forget that I’ve lived close to six years like this. I had problems and had to face a lot of challenges because of it, no other way of putting it, but I worked my way around it. And what did I achieve: I’m on my last year of college to fully become a teacher, I have my own apartment and I can sustain myself without depending on anyone else. There are others that far deserve to be more pitied than I do, taking all that into consideration.]_

 

“Pitied by me?” repeated Akashi as the arching of his eyebrow became more accentuated. He shifted his body in his seat to fully face the bluenette and tilted his head slightly. “If I were to use a word to describe what I feel about you right now it would be more ‘curiosity’ than ‘pity’. Actually, I don’t even think that pity is something that I would ever be able to feel about you.”

 

Kuroko was motioning one more piece of meringue lemon tart to his mouth when those words were said and he readily looked over to the redhead, forgetting completely the chunk of pastry that he was going to eat. He also tilted his head as he intently peered to the other male, an expression of half confusion, half surprise popping up in his features.

 

“What I know about you, Tetsuya, is that you are a smart person,” began explaining Akashi, a serious demeanor in his face as he spoke. “You pay enough attention to your surroundings to actually see the ‘traps’ that I sometimes put on my words, and I’ll tell you right away. Very few people are able to do that. You are honest and sometimes extremely blunt. You fight for what you want and find solutions to successfully achieve it, even if you have to face several setbacks while you’re at it. You have your own past and circumstances, but who doesn’t? You can’t speak and you have a phobia of sharp objects but does that truly matter? You have an absolutely normal life, save from some small differences from what I can understand, and you can communicate with others just as well as someone who can speak. So why would I go out of my way to pity you?”

 

Kuroko blinked his eyes several times as he continued to look at the redhead. All of a sudden, he lunged his hand upwards and slammed his mouth shut, inaudibly laughing at what the other male had said. When he noticed that Akashi was looking at him with a completely lost expression, he motioned his hand forward to his cell phone, still chuckling slightly without making any sound, and started writing on it.

 

_[“So why would I go out of my way to pity you?” I have to congratulate you on this one, Akashi-kun. I didn’t know it was possible to sound this cocky when the topic of the conversation was pity.]_

 

“I was being honest, thought,” pointed out Akashi, his incomprehension changing once again to a serious demeanor. “I don’t believe it’s worth it to pity someone. It’s not pity that will change anything, after all.”

 

_[You almost sound like you’re speaking from personal experience.]_

 

“I am,” shortly confirmed Akashi, picking up his teacup and giving a few more gulps to the now lukewarm beverage. He picked up his fork once again and took a little piece of the slice of tart, motioning it over to his mouth afterward. He chewed the pastry as he intently looked over to the slice. “By the way, how do you cook?”

 

Kuroko looked over to the taller male once again and tilted his head slightly, as if Akashi had just made the most ridiculous question in human history.

 

“I mean, you have aichmophobia so how do you usually cook while dealing with it?” explained further Akashi as he turned his head to once again look to the bluenette. He had been wondering about it for quite a while, ever since Aomine had mentioned that Kuroko wasn’t able to cook like other people did.

 

Thinking a little bit about how he would explain it to Akashi, Kuroko fully grabbed his cell phone after having put down the fork on the plate and started writing on it. After a while, he switched the screen to the redhead.

 

_[I don’t use any knifes or sharps objects, if that’s what you’re wondering. I’m not that skilled at cooking but I can cook some dishes, as long as they don’t require cutting or peeling anything. If one of the ingredients is meat or fish, I ask the butcher or fishmonger to prepare it according to how I will cook it. If there’s any vegetable that needs to be cut, I usually resort to the packages sold in supermarkets that have them already sliced according to the recipe. So I can cook, for example, Pork Shogayaki or Saba Tatsutaage. Though most of the time I end up making some sort of mistake while I’m cooking since I’m not used to be in the kitchen area. That’s why I’m categorized by Aomine-kun as a “disaster” in the culinary arts. But I’m still better than Momoi-san.]_

 

“Hm… That’s quite a simple method. I thought it would be something weirder, taking the way Daiki spoke of it into consideration,” pointed out Akashi as he closely thought about it. He then softly smiled to the bluenette. “It sounds quite interesting. I hope I can taste one of your dishes in the future.”

 

Blushing slightly, Kuroko turned his phone back to himself and wrote another message there, switching it back to the redhead afterward while shyly peering at him.

 

_[I can’t guarantee the taste of it but I guess I can let you eat my food if the chance occurs. Don’t expect anything fancy or as delicious as Murasakibara-kun’s pastries, though.]_

 

“Don’t worry, Tetsuya. I think I will be quite pleased with it,” added Akashi, his soft smile gaining a small mischievous undertone. “Please take care of me in the future.”

 

The bluenette also smiled back to the redhead and motioned his hand forward, finally completing the handshake that was previously interrupted with the pink haired girl’s arrival.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> God, Akashi... Instead of curiosity, you should have said that you're falling for him, you idiot *facepalms* But you two are as adorable as always while together :3
> 
> Twitter: https://twitter.com/Mafy_mod  
> Tumblr: http://mafymod.tumblr.com/


	7. Velvet Crush

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, minna-san! Mafy's here with another chapter ^.^
> 
> After constant interruptions due to the most diverse reasons, I managed to finish this chapter! God, why is that there's always something or someone that interrupts me while I'm writing -.-' I should build a bunker in my house and isolate myself there while I'm writing! Wait... then I'll become a hikikomori once again because I want to be writing 24/7 :P
> 
> Enjoy ;D

“Akashi,” called Midorima as he walked over in the redhead’s and the bluenette’s direction, who were sitting in one of the tables of the nightclub. “I’m sorry to interrupt you two while you’re talking, but the opening is in 15 minutes. Customers are already starting to form a line outside.”

 

“Really?” asked Akashi, pushing his suit’s sleeve a little bit and taking a peek at his watch. When he saw the time, he released a sigh. Apparently, time flew when it was being spent together with Kuroko. “I guess it’s time to gather everyone so we can open the nightclub then. Is everybody downstairs?”

 

“I only haven’t seen Nijimura-san or Haizaki,” answered Midorima, adjusting his glasses. “Nijimura-san is most likely upstairs in the office, but only God knows where Haizaki has gone to this time. Do you want me to go call Nijimura-san?”

 

“No, it’s okay. We can do that,” interrupted Akashi almost instantly. He looked over to the bluenette and smiled at him. “Right, Tetsuya?”

 

Kuroko nodded at both the redhead and the green haired male, giving a quick upturn to the corners of his lips. With the confirmation, Akashi got up from his seat, the bluenette getting up afterwards as he gathered their used tableware back on the tray. Peering over sideways to the smaller male, Akashi stopped in front of the green haired male and then looked at him.

 

“Gather them all in the counter area. I’ll go upstairs with Tetsuya to call Shuuzou and he most likely knows where Shougo is,” explained Akashi to the taller male, who gave a quick nod of his head in acknowledgment and started walking back to where he had came from.

 

The redhead turned around to once again look over to Kuroko but he almost crashed against him, a tray on his hands as he silently remained behind him while staring at him. Akashi almost started laughing over the fact that the bluenette had managed to scare him for the second time in a few hours.

 

“You can put the tray over there and catch it once again on our way back to the counter area once we call Shuuzou,” announced Akashi, pointing at a table further ahead of them which they would have to cross to access the staff stairs that lead to the upper floors of the building. “Let’s go then.”

 

Kuroko once again nodded his head in acknowledgment and walked beside the taller male, putting the tray on top of the table that he had indicated. As they started to climb the stairs to the upper floors, he took his cell phone out once again and started writing on it, softly tugging at the redhead’s sleeve afterwards. Akashi immediately looked over in his direction and then to the screen turned around for him to see.

 

_[What does the office on top of the nightclub focuses on? It’s quite unusual to see such a setting, taking into consideration that nightclubs are quite noisy during their open hours.]_

 

“That’s true, I guess,” answered Akashi, looking once again to in front of him as they continued going up in the stairs. “But I don’t think it’s something that bothers Shuuzou and I’m not bothered by it either. The area it’s located on is the most convenient one for us and we have the newest establishment downstairs, which can come in handy if some sort of problem occurs.”

 

_[That didn’t answer my question, though.]_

 

“Ahahaha, I guess not,” laughed Akashi, his sleeve have been once again tugged and then thrown with yet another message on the bluenette’s cell phone. “It’s only me and Shuuzou in the office. Together, we manage several establishments, not entirely associated with one another but usually in the service industry. So, in a way, we own a couple of restaurants, bars, nightclubs, coffee shops, and the list goes on.”

 

_[You do that with only the two of you? I’m not very knowledgeable in the subject, but that must be a lot of work to two people alone. You probably don’t have a lot of free time in your daily schedule because of it so it must be quite hard on you.]_

 

“Shintarou helps us from time to time when he’s not organizing any event to one of those establishments,” continued Akashi, a soft smile on his lips. Usually people commented on how much money they wouldn’t make with that kind of job but Kuroko simply worried over both of them overworking themselves. He couldn’t help but feel happy over it. “But yes, it requires a lot of work. I guess both of us are what people usually refer to as ‘workaholics’, in a way.”

 

Kuroko kept looking sideways to the redhead for a few seconds and then looked back to his cell phone, quickly writing on it.

 

_[If there’s something that I learned with knowing Aomine-kun and Kagami-kun is that working hard on something is rewarding. I also have come to experience that myself, in the latest times. But working too much can lead to unnecessary trouble in the future. You should certify yourself that you drop your “workaholic” mode from time to time and enjoy some days off, Akashi-kun.]_

 

“I do, Tetsuya. Every now and then I schedule a few days off and simply stay in my apartment reading all the books I accumulated in the meantime,” reassured Akashi with a soft smile still present on his features. They reached the upper floor and started walking through a short corridor that lead to a wooden door, closed at the moment. Slowly, the redhead’s smile started to gain a slightly more mischievous undertone. “If our schedules match one another, we can use one of our days off for you to show me your culinary ski—“

 

“YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE!!!” suddenly roared Nijimura’s voice, a crashing sound also resounding from the other side of the closed door.

 

“Well, I guess we won’t need to search for Shougo, after all,” sighed Akashi, rolling his eyes slightly at the commotion going around. He looked over to the bluenette, who seemed completely lost on what was happening and was continuously exchanging his gaze between the door in front of them and the redhead. “Don’t mind them. Shuuzou has been ‘tasked’ with putting Shougo back in order due to some reasons. They don’t get along all that well, most of the time, so they argue constantly when Shougo gets involved in some sort of trouble. Which means that this is a daily occurrence.”

 

Kuroko simply stared to the taller male as he was explaining the relationship between the two other males, an eyebrow slightly arched on his forehead. When the redhead resumed once again with his walk to the office, he reluctantly followed after him, wondering what had happened for Haizaki to receive such a loud and noisy admonishment from Nijimura.

 

Akashi motioned his hand forward and turned the doorknob, opening the door. When he saw Nijimura grabbing Haizaki by the collar of his shirt as he pushed him down against the desk, he could only sigh. “Save your fighting to outside of the office, the both of you. The opening is going to start in less than 15 minutes so go downstairs so we can official start the run of the nightclub.”

 

“…” Nijimura continued to glare to the ash haired male for a few moment seconds and then yanked his hands out of his hold on him. He took a few steps backwards and turned around to the redhead. “We’ll be coming now.”

 

“Stupid bastard…” grumbled Haizaki under his breath as he straightened his clothes and started walking in the door’s direction, passing by the redhead and the bluenette without even sparing them a single glance.

 

After Haizaki stormed off, hopefully downstairs and not to outside of the nightclub, the room was filled with momentary silence, the black haired male with his arms crossed over his chest as he continued to house a frown on his face.

 

“Is everything alright, Shuuzou?” asked Akashi, ending the awkward silence inside of the office.

 

“Yes, everything’s fine. Don’t mind us,” answered Nijimura, scratching the back of his head as the frown slowly started to melt from his features. He released an exasperated sigh and started walking in the two smaller male’s direction. “Let’s go downstairs and start everything up. And I’m sorry about this, Kuroko.”

 

Kuroko shook his head at the black haired male’s words and quickly wrote on his cell phone, switching it around in his direction afterwards.

 

_[It’s okay, Nijimura-san. Please don’t worry about it.]_

 

Nijimura gave a soft grunt in acknowledgment and started to motion outside of the office, the two smaller males walking right behind him and closing the door once again after they fully stepped outside of the office. As they reached the stairs once again, the black haired male sighed and then started asking. “Is there anything that got behind schedule or is everything truly finished?”

 

“I got slightly sidetracked but I believe that everything is ready or Shintarou wouldn’t have gone to warn me about reuniting everyone,” answered Akashi as he looked to the black haired male’s back. “From the rounds that I made and that you _missed_ , everything was completed and ready to the opening. There are also already customers waiting outside for the doors to open. It appears that the associate that Shintarou asked to make all of the publicity of the new nightclub and its opening night truly are showing their results, like he said they would.”

 

“…Okay, good to hear,” acknowledged Nijimura, twisting his nose a little bit at the masked admonishment that Akashi threw his way. They quickly reached the bottom of the stairs and he opened the door that connected the stairs to the nightclub. “We’ll have to lock this door once the customers start to come inside. Ah, talking about customers… Kuroko, are you staying for the opening?”

 

Kuroko nodded his head in acknowledgment to what the black haired male was saying and he looked down once again to the cell phone on his hands, turning it afterwards to the taller male once he had written the message there.

 

_[Yes, I am. Aomine-kun and Momoi-san invited me to come to the opening and since I don’t really have anything better to do and I’m already here, I’ll be staying. Akashi-kun has also told me that I could stay. I hope you don’t mind either.]_

 

“Oh, no worries! Stay and enjoy yourself,” said Nijimura, a big smile on his face as he looked over to the bluenette. Suddenly a half smirk popped up in his lips and he switched his gaze to the redhead. “But I think you’re already doing that. Isn’t that right, Akashi?”

 

“We don’t have the time to be chatting right now so let’s move on to the counter area, Shuuzou,” ordered Akashi after having cleared his throat softly. The black haired male simply snickered at it and turned around to resume his walking. The redhead continued to stare to the older male for a little bit longer and then peered over to the bluenette, who was still waiting in the same place they had stopped. “Let’s go, Tetsuya. Ah, I guess that from here on out all of us will get a little bit busier than before but have as much fun as you can. I’ll try to save a little bit of time and chat once again with you before you leave.”

 

Kuroko looked over in the redhead’s direction and nodded his head at those words, a soft smile on his features. He once again started to walk in the same direction that the black haired male had gone to afterwards, stuffing his cell phone in his jacket’s pocket.

 

However, Akashi remained in the same place. He put his hands on his waist and dropped his head slightly as he released a soft sigh. Then he motioned one of his hands up, running his fingers through his red locks of hair as he observed the bluenette move further away from him.

 

“Ahh, not good…” softly confessed Akashi under his breath, ruffling slightly his hair with his hand. He dropped it once again to the sides of his body and started walking. “I’m starting to wish that this day somehow turns into a day off so I don’t have to do any work whatsoever anymore.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Akashi, my dear, you're totally digging your time with Kuroko, aren't you? *wiggles eyebrows*  
> Shall I start to raise the temperature a little bit in the next chapter? Fufufu~ What do you think, minna-san? ;D
> 
> Twitter: https://twitter.com/Mafy_mod  
> Tumblr: http://mafymod.tumblr.com/


	8. Blue Temptation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, minna-san! Mafy's here with another chapter ^.^
> 
> Like I said previously, I raised the temperature just the slightest~ and I do believe I made it in a quite sugary way! You tell me after reading this chapter ;D
> 
> Enjoy!

As soon as doors of “Kaiser des Lichts” were open, the large rooms were flooded with the customers that had been anxiously waiting for the opening party to begin. After a short speech by the manager of the new nightclub, Akashi Seijuurou, its very first night open to the public began, the sudden outburst of rhythmic music, played by Kise from the DJ booth, making it official.

 

Women and men alike enjoyed the food and drinks provided near the counter and seating area, moving afterwards to the dance floor if such would please them. Three hours after the speech, both of the two areas were filled with hordes of people, Nijimura and Akashi making question of personally greet the customers that had been invited by them to come to the party due to their continuous support on both this and previous establishments they had opened.

 

“Thank you very much for coming and please enjoy your night,” finally added Akashi as he gave a brief handshake to one of the associates that provided this and other nightclubs and bars with the needed supplies for the maintenance of the counter area and the drinks elaborated there. As the man walked away to reunite with the partner he had brought to the opening party, the redhead released a soft sigh.

 

Akashi quickly scanned the seating area with his heterochromatic eyes, searching for Nijimura’s location and trying to not focus said search on another male. The very same male that had been continuously on his mind while he made his speech earlier in the night. The very same male that almost made him laugh out loud in front of one of his guests as the lady ate one of the pastries made by Murasakibara and said something quite similar to what the bluenette had told the purple haired giant when he tasted them for the first time. The very same male that he just couldn’t help but seek through the crowd, in hopes that his teal gaze and heavenly smile would once again be directed to him and solemnly to him.

 

Though it was almost coming as a shock and as a completely unexpected situation, Akashi was falling for Kuroko. Yes, he had fallen in love before. Yes, he had dated other people before. But he had _never_ fallen in love with a person of the same sex when all he did was spending a couple of hours in the same building as him and then walk around and enjoy a quick snack together with him over the course of a single hour. It wasn’t even the fact that he was falling in love with a male that was confusing him the most – it was the fact that it was happening like it was the most natural event to unfold in his life. It was almost like their meeting on this day had been carefully planned out by superior beings that could only be laughing their asses off at their masterful ploys as they observed the show advancing further and further from their high positions up above.

 

During all the conversations he has had with the customers, Akashi was perpetually trying to find the tiniest of excuses to move on to the next group and quickly clear all of the greetings he had to throw at them – all due to the chat that was arranged to happen with the bluenette if such a chance occurred. Akashi desperately needed the said chance to happen _right now_.

 

“Akashi,” suddenly called Nijimura in the midst of the loud music, walking over in the redhead’s direction as he worked his way around a group of young females happily chatting with each other, drinks on their hands. As soon as he stopped near the smaller male, he adjusted his suit lightly and released a quick tired sigh. “I think we have greeted every single guest invited by us. Only Shirogane-san is missing but, for the looks of it, he hasn’t arrived yet since I didn’t get any word of such from Haizaki. Or that bastard is lazing around while letting people inside of the nightclub… Anyway, is it me or we need to make some adjustments to the air ventilation of this whole area? It’s hot as hell in here!”

 

“There are a lot of people inside so it’s normal for that to happen. And we’re not exactly appropriately dressed to be in a nightclub, with our suits,” pointed out Akashi, which made him gain from the black haired male a nod of his head while he lightly shook his suit’s jacket to refresh his body even if just a bit. “But you just said that all of our guests have been greeted, right, Shuuzou? Then let’s have a quick break and get you something to drink. You’re sweating buckets and I fear that you will collapse at any moment with overheating.”

 

“Hah! That sure would be priceless,” snorted Nijimura as they started to walk to the counter for either Aomine or Murasakibara to serve them something fresh to drink. “Imagine how it wouldn’t be if one of the workers of the nightclub collapsed on the opening party and caused a ruckus due to it?”

 

“That’s a really tasteless joke, Shuuzou,” sighed Akashi, his eyes once again searching around through the crowd. This time for the person he truly wanted to meet. They waited for a couple of minutes as Aomine finished serving a customer and then fully stopped in front of the counter. “Daiki, give something fresh for Shuuzou to drink.”

 

“No alcohol on it, right?” asked Aomine as he grabbed a glass from the cupboard behind him and looked over in their direction over his shoulder.

 

“Of course,” acknowledged Nijimura, sitting down on one of the chairs on the counter. “I may only be talking with the customers but that’s a part of my job as one of the managers of the club. Right, Akashi?”

 

“Yes…” answered Akashi, not paying all that much attention to what the black haired male was saying as he continued to look around that area with his eyes. Not seeing Kuroko around that area was worrying greatly since he had the impression that he would be together with the tanned male. He suddenly turned his face to look at the tanned male, though his eyes weren’t really focused on him. “Daiki, where’s Tetsuya? Has he left already?”

 

“Tetsu?” repeated Aomine, putting a glass filled with ginger ale and some ice cubes in front of the black haired male. Then he turned around to face the redhead, his forearms flexed on top of the counter. “Nah, he’s out there dancing. He left to the dance floor more or less twenty minutes ago.”

 

“Dancing?” repeated Akashi this time, an eyebrow slightly perked up at that information as he now fully looked over to the tanned male. The bluenette was still there so they could still meet up one more time to talk some more. “I wouldn’t have pegged him to be someone who actually dances in a nightclub.”

 

“You’re kidding, right?” softly snorted Aomine, an amused smirk popping up in his features. “Tetsu loves to dance and we have spent quite a few nights out in nightclubs. He wouldn’t know who Kise was before they met today, otherwise. And to be honest, he’s fucking good at it.”

 

“Is that so?” asked Akashi, still a little bit confused over that extremely unexpected side of the bluenette. He had such a polite and gentle way of acting towards others that the knowledge that he was actually a frequent customer to nightclubs almost seemed to come out from the left field.

 

“Let’s see, let’s see…” Aomine propelled his upper body up from the counter once again, focusing his eyes on the dance floor as he searched around for the location of the smaller male. The counter and seating area was located on an upper platform, which enabled the entire dance floor to be visible from above when on the counter area. However, the task of spotting Kuroko was usually a complete pain in the ass, seeing as the bluenette seemed to completely disappear from other people’s fields of view and then just randomly pop up once again when they weren’t expecting. After a few minutes of looking around, he found the person in question in the middle of the dancing crowd and readily pointed at him with his index. “Oh, he’s over there! Not exactly in the center of the dance floor, but more to the right.”

 

Akashi readily followed with his eyes the direction where the finger was point at, searching around the group of people dancing for a now familiar bluenette. When he found what he had been seeking for hours now, the redhead could only let his jaw drop.

 

“Oh wow!” interjected Nijimura as he also took a peek to what the other two males were looking at, his eyes open in surprise and the cold drink he had been sipping now completely forgotten in his hand.

 

“From what I’ve heard, people who don’t speak resort more to body language than those who speak. They are also more conscious about it than others,” started explaining Aomine as he wiped a glass with a white towel, his eyes still looking in the bluenette’s direction. “So I think that when Tetsu dances, it’s his way to express himself through his body. And that’s why most people react exactly like that when they see him doing it for the first time. Because once he’s out there in the dance floor… Tetsu becomes the sexiest and most fascinating bastard in the universe.”

 

“I think that’s an understatement…” ended up blurting out Akashi, his heterochromatic eyes prisoner to the way the bluenette moved his body at the rhythm of the music currently playing. No, it was almost as if the music was playing according to his body’s movements, not the other way around. It was simply perfect and it definitely took the word ‘sensual’ to a whole new level.

 

The way Kuroko’s hips swayed at the beat, his arms up over his head, his blue locks of hair floating in the air when his head moved just the slightest and those hypnotizing teal eyes as they peered over… in his direction? Did Kuroko know that right now he was observing him to the tiniest of details from afar?

 

“Excuse me!” sounded the voice of a woman, calling for the bartenders to serve her another drink.

 

“Coming!” answered Aomine, giving one more look to the bluenette and then to the redhead, who was still staring in the same direction. Then he simply walked away to go attend to the request of the customer, leaving the redhead to his own thoughts and conclusions about what he was seeing at the moment.

 

Akashi’s eyes remained glued to the teal eyes that seemed to stare right back at his. Slowly, Kuroko started to lower his arms from up in the air, his fingers raining down through his hair and features. Then he did something that the redhead had never seen him doing throughout all of their conversations – Kuroko parted his lips and articulated a single word with them.

 

His heart immediately went for the fastest and craziest spin of his entire life when Akashi realized that the words that had just exited the bluenette’s mouth, even if done without any sound accompanying it, had been his name. Kuroko had just said “Akashi-kun” while outright pumping his body in what was the most erotic way of dancing that the redhead had even seen, even with years of experience of working in nightclubs.

 

Akashi was looking at him and the bluenette knew he was doing so. Right now… Kuroko was dancing while thinking about him, while looking at him and no one else. Kuroko was _speaking_ with him, not by the means of his cell phone and the messages written there – he was purely using his body to transmit the words that wouldn’t be able to exit his vocal cords, even if due to his own choice on it.

 

_I want him._

 

Akashi felt the most desperate need of his life to hold someone in his arms. It wasn’t due to the bluenette currently trying to outright seduce him with his dancing movements and those beautiful eyes that refused to move away from him. It wasn’t because he felt pity or curiosity over the smaller male – that long stopped being an option the moment he realized that he was falling for him.

 

In the span of less than half a day, Akashi fell utterly in love with Kuroko and he wanted to go after him. He wanted to hear the bluenette call his name once again, this time right in front of him and with the sound of his unknown voice attached to it. He wanted to touch him, not just pat his head but discover every nook and cranny of his body with his own.

 

_I want him right now._

 

“Akashi!” suddenly called Nijimura’s voice as he was about to get out of the chair he had settled himself on while on the counter. The redhead readily looked over at him with a sort of surprised expression on his features and the taller male proceeded with what he wanted to say when he called him. “Shirogane-san has just arrived. He’s over there.”

 

“Yes… Right…” acknowledged Akashi, still slightly out of it with the need to go get the bluenette that was slowly eating at him. He clenched his fist for a fraction of a second and cleared his throat, pushing his desires back inside so he could continue with his work – which was what he had to do now. That’s right, he was currently on his working hours and he had to focus on it. The quickest he completed that, the quickest he could go meet with the bluenette. Akashi fully got out of the chair and straightened his suit. “Let’s go meet with him, then.”

 

“Are you feeling okay?” asked Nijimura, a slight frown on his face as he peered over to the redhead. “I called you again and again but you just continued to space out. Are you also in need to refresh your body a little?”

 

“Ah… Yes, that would probably be a good idea,” answered Akashi with a quick snort and a soft smile on his lips. “However, we have to go greet the last of our guests. Let’s not waste time with it and go talk with Shirogane-san.”

 

“Well, if you say so…” hesitantly acknowledged Nijimura, closely observing the smaller male for a couple more of seconds. Then he looked back to in front of him and the both of them started to walk over in the older male’s direction. Once they reached near him, they were immediately greeted by a warm smile. “Pleasure to see you once again, Shirogane-san.”

 

“Ah, yes. It’s always a pleasure to see you two too, Nijimura, Akashi,” greeted back Shirogane Kouzou, motioning his hand forward to give an handshake to the black haired male. “I wish you the best of luck with this nightclub, as I have done with all of your other establishments.”

 

“Thank you very much, Shirogane-san,” said Akashi, also giving a quick handshake to the older male. “We are extremely grateful for all the help and support you have given us throughout the years. Without it, we wouldn’t have been able to reach where we are today.”

 

“But that’s thanks to your hard work, not mine,” pointed out Shirogane after giving a short laugh. “All of your business proposals and establishments are absolutely perfect and you got where you currently are without a single cent from your father. You are giving me far too much credit and far too less to yourself, Akashi.”

 

“None of that changes the fact that you had your hand on it and—“ continued Akashi but when his eyes accidentally switched over in the bluenette’s direction, he came to a sudden halt on his own words. He quickly fully turned his face over in his direction. “Shit! Shirogane-san, please excuse me. Shuuzou, take care of the rest.”

 

“Hey, wait! Where are you going, Akashi?” readily yelled Nijimura as he saw the redhead suddenly run off to deeper inside of the crowd, motioning over in the dance floor’s direction. When he completely lost sight of him, the black haired male released a long sigh, scratching the back of his head slightly.

 

“Did something happen?” asked Shirogane, a worried expression on his face due to the uncharacteristic departure that the redhead suddenly took.

 

“I have no idea,” confessed Nijimura, an eyebrow slightly arched at the exact same thing that was worrying to older male. “I really don’t.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, well... Sorry for the cliffhanger, I guess :P I was in the mood for one, hehehe.
> 
> But the cocktail used as a title for this chapter truly was a convenient one. The color it has is the exact same hue of blue that colors Kuroko's hair and eyes. And he really is being a sweet sweet temptation for Akashi, isn't he?
> 
> I wonder what will happen in the next chapter :3
> 
> Twitter: https://twitter.com/Mafy_mod  
> Tumblr: http://mafymod.tumblr.com/


	9. Kiss Me Quick

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, minna-san! Mafy's here with another chapter ^.^
> 
> This chapter was a god send to me. I definitely needed something to entertain myself today, since my mother will undergo a surgery tomorrow and she's already in the hospital waiting for it. So I'm literally biting my nails here... I think that by the time I receive news from the hospital tomorrow, I won't have any nails to bite -.-'
> 
> Anyway, though later than usual, my daily chapter has arrived! Having~ said~ that~
> 
> Warning: NOSEBLEED ALERT! Get a bunch of tissue boxes before reading this, kiddos, it gets wild XD (And in my defense, I did write in the summary that it would be "as suddenly as a thunder storm" ;D)
> 
> Enjoy~

Observing as Akashi suddenly got up from his seating location in the counter and walked away, Kuroko was overcome with a sudden urge to slam his head hard against the floor of the dance floor, not minding at all that he would most likely be stepped all over with the large amount of people around him.

 

 _Just what exactly am I doing right now?,_ admonished himself the bluenette in the back of his mind as he used the back of his hand to wipe the sweat that had accumulated on his forehead due to his dancing and the extremely stuffy atmosphere around him. A large amount of people inside of a closed space was always akin to a hot and humid atmosphere, even with the air ventilation working at its max. It was something simply unavoidable and he was used to it already, with all of his nights out with Aomine or Kagami in other nightclubs.

 

However, why was his brain getting affected by the heat, when he was supposedly used to it, enough to do something as bold and outright out of character as dancing solemnly to Akashi, without a care of how that would be later interpreted by the redhead?

 

Had he gone insane? Did Aomine accidentally serve him any strong alcoholic drink, even though he asked for non-alcoholic cocktails only after the experimental ones that he had test-tasted earlier in the afternoon? Did someone slip something to his drinks while he wasn’t looking that was making him completely lose his inhibitions or sense of shame?

 

Because Kuroko couldn’t find _any_ other excuses to what he had done.

 

 _I think it would be better if I went home for the day,_ inwardly mumbled Kuroko as he started to walk over to the counter area so he could grab his belongings, which had stayed together with Aomine so he could more easily move while in the dance floor.

 

Almost immediately after he started to walk, a hand landed on his shoulder and stopped his movements, the bluenette readily turning his head behind to look over in the direction of the person who had grabbed him.

 

“Hey, are you here alone?” asked a tall black haired male, his hand still grabbing into the smaller male’s shoulder. “I’ll pay you a drink so why don’t we dance a little bit? Just the two of us.”

 

Kuroko fervently shook his head right away, motioning his hands up to take the taller male’s hand away from him and continue to walk over to the counter area. However, one of his wrists was readily gripped by the black haired male’s other hand and his body was pulled closer to him. The stench of a well drunk breath readily made the bluenette fell nauseated, as if the hands grabbing into him weren’t enough to make him want to throw up.

 

“C’mooon, don’t give me that,” complained the black haired male with a slightly slurry voice, his face inching closer to the smaller male. “You come here, dance all by yourself and then simply leave? Let’s have some fun together, okay? You’re alone, right? So even if you stay here with me, no one will be inconvenienced by it. So c’mon.”

 

Kuroko shook his head once again, trying to pull his wrist free with even more strength as his brain was starting to panic. However, the hands holding into him refused to let go or even slacken its grip.

 

“Since you’re not saying anything, it means you agree with me,” said the black haired male, a sly smirk on his face as he started to pull the smaller male even closer to him and back to deeper into the dance floor. All of a sudden, a hand grabbed his wrist and readily yanked it off of his grasp on the bluenette. Soon, the entirety of the smaller male was ripped out of him. “Huh!?”

 

“I would be extremely inconvenienced if you took him away,” immediately announced Akashi, a glare on his heterochromatic eyes as he closely held into Kuroko, whose body was shaking just the slightest. “He’s not here alone and he doesn’t want your company. Leave him alone before I kick you out of not only my nightclub but the entire Roppongi area.”

 

“What!?” yelped the black haired male, a furious expression on his features as he looked over to the redhead who had just completely ruined his chances of having some extremely entertaining time with the small bluenette. “I asked him about it! And he didn’t say anything about not wanting!”

 

“Just because he didn’t answer, it doesn’t mean it makes it okay for you to simply start to drag him away against his will, which was obvious with the way he was trying to push you away!” argued back Akashi, his glare intensifying by a tenfold as he more protectively held the bluenette against his body. “Now _leave_!”

 

“Shit!” cursed the black haired male, giving a quick turn on his heels and starting to walk away immediately, his semblance quickly morphing and then disappeared in between all the people in the dance floor.

 

“Are you okay, Tetsuya?” readily asked Akashi, looking down to the bluenette being straight out hugged by him. Kuroko gave a frail nod with his head and the redhead could only click his tongue at it. He released the smaller male’s body and clasped his hand on the pale one of the other male, pulling him along with him in the bathroom’s direction, the closest place where they could have some privacy so that Akashi could certificate himself that Kuroko was truly fine.

 

Not knowing what to do about this situation in particular, Kuroko simply let himself be lead by Akashi, both of them skillfully skirting around the crowd present on the dance floor until they reached the area that would connect to the bathrooms, where they simply passed by a pair of women that immediately giggled to one another at the sight of both of them, two males, holding hands while hurriedly walking to that place in particular.

 

As soon as both of them were inside of the men’s bathroom, Akashi gave a quick search around their surroundings with his eyes – only the muffled sound of the music could be heard from behind the closed door. He readily grabbed the bluenette’s face with both hands and pulled it up. “Are you okay? Really okay?”

 

Kuroko clumsily nodded his head in acknowledgment, like he had done previously, only this time he felt actually embarrassed over doing it and not slightly taken aback by the sudden rescue performed by the redhead.

 

All that Akashi could do over seeing those awkwardly done nods was sigh in relief. He lightened his hold on the bluenette’s features and softly caressed his pale cheeks with his thumbs. “You idiot… It’s usually in that type of situation that you gut-punch people, not when you feel irked or angry at their words. You definitely need to reevaluate your priorities in that regard or find something other than gut-punching others if something like that happens again.”

 

Kuroko inaudibly chuckled at the soft and kind admonishment that was being thrown at him by the taller male, who didn’t seem all that angry while telling him off.

 

“This is no laughing matter, Tetsuya. I’m being quite serious here,” added Akashi as he saw more amusement over this type of situation than actually repentance or fear. That last one came highly appreciated but it was still something that shouldn’t be taken lightly, especially if it could somehow involve the breaching of any of the rules that he had came to know in regards of dealing with the smaller male. “What would you have done if I didn’t get there in time? I literally interrupted a conversation in the middle with one of our guests because of you. Do you have any idea that my heart almost stopped beating when I saw that guy starting to drag you away? And yet here you are, chuckling like a mad man as if nothing as serious as that just happened to you.”

 

What other than chuckling could Kuroko do? Even though he was being pretty much scolded by the redhead at the moment, he felt far happier over hearing it than actually feel bad at it. Because, even with everything that the taller male was telling him, none of it was putting the blame on him, directly or indirectly speaking. Not now and not back there in the dance floor. So even if he seemed like a mad man right now, Kuroko really could only soundlessly chuckle at the moment.

 

“Really… What am I going to do with you…?” sighed Akashi, a soft smile on his features as he continued to observe the bluenette’s current amusement. In a sudden impulse, he closed their faces to one another and softly landed his lips on Kuroko’s, the smaller male’s body stiffening just the slightest at the out-of-the-blue kiss. As the redhead was starting to depart their mouths with hopes to apologize over what he had unconsciously done, Kuroko’s face followed right after his and their lips once again joined in a brief and gentle kiss. “Tetsuya? Are you drunk?”

 

Kuroko readily shook his head in denial and motioned his hand over… to the place where supposedly his cell phone should have been. He had also left it with Aomine before going to the dance floor since he couldn’t risk having it stolen from him. He would lose his usual mean of communication with others if such happened. The bluenette released a quick sigh and grabbed the redhead’s hand, pulling it upwards. Then he simply opened the taller male’s hand fully and started writing on his palm using his fingertips.

 

_[Alcoholic drinks. Zero. You?]_

 

“Of course I didn’t drink anything. I’m technically in my working hours right now,” answered Akashi to the question being made to him this time by the means of his own body. When he lifted his eyes from his hand and looked over to the bluenette’s face, he found there the most beautiful smile he had ever seen in any other human being.

 

It seemed that words weren’t needed between them. They could get along and communicate with each other extremely well even if words weren’t involved. Akashi knew that, just like he also knew that Kuroko knew that.

 

Without any form of hesitation and fully conscious of his actions this time, Akashi lunged his head forward once again and kissed Kuroko, this time around in a much needier and hungrier way. And the smaller male’s body didn’t stiffen at it – it actually became much more relaxed as he put his arms around his body and responded to the kiss just as desperately as he did.

 

Leading their bodies in a clumsy dance back to the bathroom’s door as they continuously exchanged kisses, Akashi motioned his hand to his pants’ back pocket and took from there a set of keys. As soon as the bluenette’s back landed on the wooden door, the redhead quickly inserted the correct key on the lock and fully closed the door, preventing any future entrance inside of the bathroom and reserving that space fully to themselves, as weird as it may actually sound.

 

“Haa… Haa…” Panting heavily when the kiss was momentarily broke, Kuroko released his hold on the redhead’s body and readily started pulling his suit’s jacket off of him, the taller male occupying one of his hands with the mission of unfastening his own necktie while the other remained on his hips.

 

Those two pieces of clothing thrown and forgotten in the floor, they once again joined their mouths and their bodies, their tongues and saliva being entwined as Akashi hurriedly worked his way on unbuckling the bluenette’s belt and then pulling his pants halfway down. Motioning his hand forward to land it in the smaller male’s bulging erection satisfied him far more than he would have expected over feeling another male’s hard on with his own body.

 

“Ngh…” softly whimpered Kuroko when the redhead also pulled down his underwear and directly touched his erect member, skillfully wrapping his fingers around it and lightly pumping it into an even harder stage. He threw his head backwards against the door, one of his hands gripping into the taller male’s shirt while the other grabbed the doorknob in search for stability on his standing position, since his knees were steadily growing weaker and weaker with each movement of the other male’s hand. “Haa… Ngh… Mmhm…!”

 

Akashi kissed the bluenette one more time, deliciously feasting on his tongue. Kuroko most likely felt awkward over the prospect of releasing any sound. Not due to their current location, seeing as the loud music outside would successfully muffle any voice or sound being made while inside of the bathroom. It was because of his mutism, even if was being done by his own free choice. So if it would help Kuroko in any way, Akashi would kiss him as much as it would be necessary to keep him from making any kind of sound. He didn’t mind doing so at all.

 

“Mmh… Nnn…” Feeling his body shuddering madly as a means to scream in protest over him keeping inside his imminent climax, Kuroko closed his watery-from-pleasure eyes and desperately tugged at the redhead’s shirt. The taller male swiftly stopped the kiss but not his hand’s movements, leaving him begging for more in both regards. “Haa… Ngh...!”

 

“Are you going to cum?” asked Akashi, motioning his head closer to the bluenette’s neck and licking and nibbling at the exposed flesh. When he sensed the smaller male’s head desperately nodding in acknowledgment, he couldn’t help but chuckle at it. “Good. Then cum.”

 

“Ngh!” After being thrown with those words, Kuroko couldn’t hold himself back anymore, seeing as they were accompanied with the hastening of the taller male’s hand’s pumping movements. A couple more of jerks to his dripping with precum member, his climax was achieved in what seemed the strongest wave of pleasure that his body had ever experienced in his entire life. “Nnnngh!!”

 

His hand covered with the bluenette’s sticky release, Akashi released a quick sigh of satisfaction, almost as if it had been him the one to be pleasured until climax. He gave a soft peck to Kuroko’s sweaty forehead and then another one to the tip of his nose, lunging afterwards to one more delirious kiss on his oh so sweet lips. “Tetsuya… Haa… Can I continue or do you want to stop?”

 

Instead of nodding or shaking his head in agreement or denial, Kuroko simply motioned his two hands forward in the redhead’s direction and started undoing his belt, an extremely bright shade of red dusting his features as he did so.

 

“I’ll take that as a ‘continue’, then,” acknowledged Akashi, a gentle smile on his features even though his body was burning for more. A blushing Kuroko was an adorable sight. A bold Kuroko was extremely erotic. But a combination of the two was apparently something that he wasn’t physically ready to withstand without losing his mind or rationality.

 

The redhead once again motioned his head forward and kissed the bluenette, feeling with his tongue the hot and slippery inside. As gently and cautiously as he could, Akashi probed with one of his fingers the tight crevice of the bluenette, his body flinching slightly with the intrusion. Even if Kuroko has had sex before, he most definitely had never had anal sex, taking into consideration the tightness and the small physical discomfort that he was displaying through fidgeting around against him. Though bodily fluids were never the most of advised of lubricants, specially for people not used to this kind of sexual activity, which was clearly what both of them were, they didn’t have any other option at the moment and so Akashi continued with his careful work on stretching that small entrance by using the bluenette’s release as a help.

 

“Mmhn!” Kuroko tried to desperately keep his gasps and moans stored deep inside of his rusty vocal cords, but when he couldn’t, the redhead swiftly swallowed them down by the means of his deliciously performed kisses. To sustain his weight, the bluenette once again grabbed into the doorknob with one of his hands while holding into the shoulder of the taller male with his other – his legs had long stopped doing their usual work and had been turned to nothing but wobbly pieces jelly made of flesh and bone. It felt extremely uncomfortable having Akashi’s fingers working their ways inside of his crevice, but somehow… “Haa… Mnn!”

 

“Am I hurting you?” asked Akashi after having broken the kiss but with their faces still very close to each other. He observed as the bluenette shook his head in denial softly, his teal eyes never leaving his red and golden ones. The redhead gave a quick nod with his head and then a quick peck to the smaller male’s moist and reddish lips. “If I do, warn me right away, okay?”

 

Kuroko was about to nod his head in acknowledgment when his body almost fell to the ground due to being thrown off of balance. Someone had tried to open the bathroom’s door from the outside by turning the knob he had been holding into for support, which broke his already very difficult standing position. Luckily, Akashi was quick enough to actually support the side of his body with one of his arms before he fully lost his balance and fell completely in the floor.

 

“We’re probably in need to find another location,” pointed out Akashi, laughter actually trying to creep out of him. What exactly was he doing in the bathroom of his own nightclub, during his working hours where he should be with Nijimura going around talking with the customers that they had personally invited to come to the opening party? But honestly, he no longer cared about any of that. “But first… Ngh… Let me put it in.”

 

Carefully, Akashi withdrew his fingers from the bluenette’s crevice and, while holding into the smaller male’s body with one of his arms so that he wouldn’t fall down once again, fully released his hard member, throbbing madly at the desperate need to also achieve its own climax. He slowly pulled one of Kuroko’s legs slightly up and aligned his cock with the stretched crevice of the bluenette, maybe not that gently thrusting inside of him in one go.

 

“Ahhhhh—!” loudly moaned Kuroko, his back slamming against the door and making it rattle on its hinges with the strength of the impact. Tears streaming down from his eyes, he tried to regulate his breathing the better he could taking his current circumstances into account. “Haa… Ngh… Haaa…”

 

“I’m sorry, Tetsuya… Haa… I got too hasty…” apologized Akashi as he tried to maintain his body completely motionless to give time for the bluenette’s insides to adjust to the member currently penetrating him. Apparently that wasn’t all that easy to do, due to the very pleasurable tightness around his cock and the gorgeous appearance of the smaller male as he lovely stared at him, his cheeks fully red and his eyes half-lidded from what he could guess was the beginning of pleasure caused by their actual love-making act. “Are you okay?”

 

“Haa… Haa…” Still panting heavily even while trying to somewhat control his breathing, Kuroko gave a quick and awkward nod with his head.

 

“Can I move, Tetsuya, or should I wait a little bit more?” asked further Akashi, adjusting slightly his hold on the bluenette’s body to more easily grab into him. He actually wanted to start thrusting right away and hear more of those honey-dripping mewls and moans, but he definitely didn’t want to hurt the smaller male in any way, if he could avoid it.

 

Kuroko almost felt the urge to roll his eyes at that question. He motioned his hands up and circled the redhead’s neck with his arms, lunging his head forward afterwards to kiss him. Since Akashi immediately gave a quick pull to his body and sustained his weight fully on his arms, his legs wrapping around the taller male’s waist as the kiss continued… Yes, Akashi had understood his message more than clearly.

 

In between hungry and wet kisses, Akashi departed Kuroko’s back from the door and carried him further inside of the bathroom, part of him surprised at how neatly their bodies seemed to fit together against one another and how easily he could actually carry the 21 years old male. Once they reached the basin sinks, the redhead softly sat the bluenette there, their lips separating with a thin thread of saliva unifying them in tandem with their still connected lower bodies.

 

“Ahhh!” Once one of his hands landed in the sink for support, Akashi readily started thrusting deep into him, igniting a sort of pleasure out of his body that he hadn’t experienced even while the redhead was pumping his aroused member earlier. It felt so much better and it made his body become even hotter, even needier for all of these out-of-the-world, amazingly good sensations that apparently the redhead could provide in amounts that clearly weren’t satiating him at the moment. Just like his heart couldn’t get enough of being near and interact with Akashi in all sorts of situations, his body couldn’t get enough of his feverish touch. “Ngh… Ahh—“

 

“Haa… Tetsuya…” Continuing to move his hips back and forward and rocking the body being held by him with said movements, Akashi lunged his head forward and softly teased the bluenette’s neck by switching between licking, nibbling and giving soft suckles to his pale and hot skin. While one of his hands remained on Kuroko’s lower back to prevent him from either falling backwards or slipping out of the basin sink, he motioned his free hand and once again started pumping the yet again erect cock of the smaller male, every now and then softly pressing the head since he came to realize that the bluenette’s moans became much more unrestrained when he did so.

 

“Ahhh! Ngh… Ahhhh—“ Kuroko no longer could keep his voice in check, nor did he want to. Moaning his lungs out due to everything being done to his body by the redhead on what was his first sexual encounter with another human being surely could be forgiven. He sure hoped it could because he definitely didn’t want to stop and he most definitely didn’t want to let go of Akashi.

 

For as weird and messed up as it may seem, the bluenette had completely fallen in love with the redhead over the course of that single hour they shared together before the opening party started. Falling in love with another man and then have sex with that very same man in a single evening… Not like his usual self at all but curiously enough, Kuroko didn’t mind it even the slightest. Akashi apparently made him want to lose control and do things he would _never_ do with another person, whether female or male.

 

 _I fell in love at first sight with my best friend’s cocky male boss,_ inwardly recited Kuroko as he once again lunged his head forward to fervently kiss the said ‘cocky male boss’, his release once again building up in his lower abdomen. He could only soundlessly chuckle at his following thought. _It’s such a cliché plot that it almost makes me want to change it into another bestseller._

 

“Having fun over there?” teasingly asked Akashi against the bluenette’s lips, exchanging quick kisses with him as he spoke. “Don’t leave me out of it and tell me all you’re thinking about afterwards. Ngh… I want to know everything about you, Tetsuya, and I want you to know everything about me so I’ll also tell you everything I’m thinking afterwards too.”

 

“Ahhh—“ moaned Kuroko, the redhead thrusting much faster into him and muddling his head even further with all that bottomless pleasure. He wouldn’t be able to hold on much longer but Akashi seemed as much on the limit as he was, with his heavy panting and that fervent red and golden gaze that sent shivers down his spine with the intensity it held while directed at him. “Ahhhh!”

 

“Tetsuya…!” With a few more thrusts, the bluenette came for the second time against both of their bodies, his creamy release splattering on their upper clothes. Another thrust and Akashi fully withdrew his member from inside of Kuroko’s slick crevice, his own climax joining the sticky mess on top of the bluenette’s shirt.

 

Their bodies remained close to each other, both panting almost in unison as they basked on the afterglow of their love making session and the release achieved through it, teal eyes never leaving the heterochromatic ones that refused to look any other way than to that blue hue.

 

Akashi pushed the bluenette’s body closer to his own while on top of the sink and gently kissed Kuroko, who in return wrapped his arms once again around his neck, his fingers running softly through the red locks of hair. When their lips parted, the taller male softly smiled at the other male.

 

“Which pastry should we try for our next conversation?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I'm a perv and no, I don't care about being one. I need AkaKuro to survive. But DAMN! How comes that with 9 chapters, Akashi and Kuroko have had sex here and are actually about to somehow make sense of what has just happened in the bathroom, while in Shattered Miracles, which has over 100 chapters, they are still suppressing their mutual love for one another? I mean, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TWO DOING WRONG IN THAT FIC THAT IS BEING CORRECTLY DONE IN A FIC WHERE KUROKO IS FREAKING MUTE!?
> 
> Sorry, I lost too much blood while writing this chapter and the blood being transfused into me must have came from an easily angry person -.-'
> 
> I loved writing this chapter very, very, veeeeeeeeery much ^.^ It's so beautiful~ It's so poetic~ (in a smutty type of poetic, if you catch my drift *winks*) And I can't wait to write the next chapter because... Ah, well, you know me ;D (and by you know me, if means I have actually found a way to cockblock them, hehehehe)
> 
> [Just a little curiosity for you guys: I'm quite a big fan of Swedish bands (don't ask me why because I also don't know) and while I was writing this chapter I was skipping music after music on my computer's playlist. And I found a sort of old (it's from 2014 so it's not THAT old) song there, called "Bedroom" by Alvaro Estrella... Let's just say that I cracked up laughing because that song just suits this chapter so very well XD Akashi and Kuroko truly never made it to the bedroom, ahahahahahaha! Listen to it if you want to know what I mean ;D]
> 
> Twitter: https://twitter.com/Mafy_mod  
> Tumblr: http://mafymod.tumblr.com/


	10. What the Hell

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, minna-san! Mafy's here with a new chapter!
> 
> I finally had time in my hands to update Break My Silence. Now that I have relaxed, I have to pack my things once again since tomorrow I will be fully moving to my working place and to the dorm where I'll be staying. I have to be honest... I HATE packing things and I have no idea if everything will fit in my bag because I went crazy with buying manga -.-' I can only pray for everything to fit inside...
> 
> Well, enjoy the chapter ^.^

“Enjoy your drink!” said Aomine with a grin on his face after one more client took a drink made by him. It felt really good to see people drinking something that he had made and actually coming back to ask for more afterwards. He picked one of the washed glasses and a towel and started leisurely drying it while taking a peek to the dance floor, to see if he could see where the bluenette’s location was at the moment. “Hmm?”

 

The thing that he noticed right away was that Akashi was in the dance floor, only then noticing that Kuroko was being dragged away from there by him. They quickly walked over in the bathroom’s direction and disappeared on the corridor that led to it.

 

 _Wasn’t Akashi supposed to be talking with one of the invited customers right now?,_ remembered Aomine, an eyebrow slightly arched as he continued to stare in the direction the two smaller male’s had disappeared into. _Wait… Did something happen with Tetsu?_

 

Worried that something might have gone wrong while the bluenette was dancing on the lower floor, the tanned male quickly settled the clean cup on the shelf and put the drying towel in the inner counter of the bar area. As he was about to walk out of the counter to go check on what had happened, a voice interrupted his movements.

 

“Excuse me, could I get one more of these?” requested the same woman that had came to ask for a drink while he was showing Kuroko’s location to the redhead, this time a friend (or so it seemed) accompanying her.

 

“Ah…” Aomine took a quick glance to the purple haired male, who was already attending to other customers and released a quick, masked sigh. He returned to his position and grabbed a new glass to prepare the drink. “Coming right up.”

 

The tanned male quickly grabbed the bottles of alcohol that would enable him to prepare the same cocktail he had given to that customer and started pouring and mixing it with the necessary instruments. He every so often took a new peek to the corridor, to see if any of the two smaller males had came out. But time continued to pass and there was no signal of both whatsoever, making his worry grow each second that passed.

 

As soon as the drink was ready and the two females had returned to their table or to the dance floor, Aomine hastily left his post and stopped near the purple haired male. “Murasakibara, I’m gonna do my break now. I’ll try to be quick but I can’t guarantee anything.”

 

“Eh… But there’s a lot of customers right now…” sluggishly complained Murasakibara, lifting his purple eyes from the drink he was preparing to look over to the tanned male. When he saw the sort of panicky expression in the other male, he could only sigh at it. “Hurry up then. You’re not getting another break for a while though.”

 

“Thanks,” acknowledged Aomine, giving a quick pat on the purple haired male’s upper arm as he motioned outside of the counter and into the tables’ area.

 

Skirting around the males and females happily chatting around in that area, the tanned male motioned over to the floor positioned in a slightly lower ground, where he had to do his utmost to avoid crashing against any of the customers dancing there. Kuroko was lucky on that regard – his body was smaller than his so it should be much easier to walk around in such a people-packed room.

 

As soon as he reached the corridor, his eardrums throbbing a little bit at the louder sound of the music in the dance floor he had to cross, he quickly walked over in the man’s bathroom’s direction, since he figured it would be there that he would find the bluenette and the redhead. When he reached the door, he gave a quick push to it so it would open… but it didn’t.

 

“Hmm?” Arching an eyebrow slight at the stoppage of the usually easily open door, the tanned male motioned his hand down and turned the knob. It did turn with the movement of his wrist, but the door still didn’t move a single inch. “Huh? What’s going on?”

 

With the loud music of that area, he wouldn’t be able to hear anything very well but Aomine still leaned his ear closer to the door. If it wasn’t opening, then the door had been locked. Possibly with both the bluenette and the redhead inside, since Akashi had the keys for the entire building with him at all times.

 

 _“…in need… location…”_ Though with a considerably muffled sound due to the locked door and the music, Aomine did manage to hear voices inside of the bathroom. And it sounded just like the redhead’s voice, as well as it seemed to come right from the other side of the door. _“…first… put it in…”_

_“Ahhhhh—!”_ sounded another voice from the inside of the bathroom, the door teetering slightly at the same time.

 

“Eh…?” interjected Aomine, separating the side of his head from the door and staring intently at it with eyes open in surprise. That just now… It almost sounded like the bluenette’s voice, from the time when he still spoke. But in the form of a _moan_. A very loud one. “…………………….EH!?”

 

 _Wait…_ , started to rationalize the tanned male as he continued to look over to the door, a completely flabbergasted expression on his face. _Akashi and Tetsu are inside of the bathroom, right behind the door… And they are currently doing something that makes Tetsu, who hasn’t spoke a single word for years, moan in such a way…_

 

“OH MY FUCKING GOD!!!” loudly yelped Aomine, in his tanned cheeks appearing a dark shade of red. Kuroko and Akashi were having sex in the bathroom right now. Kuroko was having sex with another man inside of the bathroom of a nightclub. A man who he only met a couple of hours ago. “Oh shit…!”

 

Not knowing how to interpret or what to do about this situation in particular, Aomine started to walk back to the dance floor through the corridor, his head running a hundred miles an hour because of it. He quickly returned to the upper floor and motioned over to the counter area, where he instead of entering to behind the counter, continued to follow forward to step inside of the kitchen. There, he opened the backdoor located in that division and exited to the backstreet that was located behind the building.

 

Then he simply leaned his back on the door he closed behind himself, his hand motioning up to his hear to ruffle his dark blue locks of hair.

 

 _WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON RIGHT NOW!?!?!?,_ inwardly yelled Aomine, his brain starting to toast at the knowledge of the currently situation that his childhood friend had involved himself on.

 

Kuroko was having sex. With his boss. In the bathroom of the nightclub where he worked at. The tanned male honestly didn’t know which one of these aspects of this scenario shocked him to most. As far as he knew, the bluenette was a virgin (yes, _was_!) and he had never heard him say he was dating anyone nor pointing out his romantic interest in another person. Much less to the degree of sleeping with a person he had met in the afternoon of that very same day!

 

So he had absolutely no idea of what was happening at the moment. This wasn’t the smaller male’s usual behavior. Before Aomine had “settled down” with Kagami Taiga, Kuroko was continuously admonishing him over his wild behavior on his romantic ploys and all the consequences that it could bring forward to his possible and growing basketball career. The bluenette disliked the thought of affairs, one night stands and friends with benefits with fervor. Heck, he hated the thought alone of having to touch other human beings under most of circumstances. Taking that into consideration, what he was currently doing was something unthinkable for those who knew the bluenette as well as he did.

 

Had Akashi somehow managed to coerce Kuroko to do something like that with him? _No, that’s completely impossible._

 

The redhead hadn’t shown any sign of ill intentions towards the smaller male – actually, he had displayed great worry over him when he ran away due to the sharp object that Murasakibara had on his hands. Akashi might be somewhat manipulative, especially in business exchanges that he knew that he would be able to profit off in the future, but he was a serious individual who would never force another person to do _that_ kind of thing against their will or if they even showed the smallest of discomfort on the matter.

 

_So… Does that mean that it was with mutual consent between them? Eh!? But… Tetsu, he… They met today! They only talked with each other for about an hour! Why would they… I mean… Tetsu only drank the two cocktails I made him in the afternoon and then some alcohol-free drinks during the opening party. It’s impossible for him to be drunk right now. Akashi also said both him and Nijimura don’t drink while working. So…_

_Why the heck are they having sex, taking all of those things into consideration!?!?_

 

No matter what kind of an explanation his brain would bring forward for this situation, Aomine still couldn’t make head or tails of what was happening. One hour was enough for two people to get on each other pants, yes, but he knew very well that such was too short of a meeting for Kuroko to take on such activities and, well, Akashi also didn’t come off as someone who would interrupt his own work for a quick escapade in the bathroom.

 

_In the span of that hour where they talked and shared a quick snack… did both Tetsu and Akashi fell in love with each other?_

 

“Oh, holy crap…” cursed Aomine, rubbing softly the bridge of his nose with the pads of his fingers. That was it. He wouldn’t be able to figure out anything by himself at this rate (he was nicknamed as Ahomine by his closest friends, after all) and, even if he created one thousand explanations for what was happening, none of them may be the truth behind it.

 

He would have to wait for the bluenette to finish his business with Akashi in the bathroom and then, when he returned to the counter area, he would try to ask him about what the heck was going on. Something as big as this surely was deserving of some sort of feedback from his behalf, even if Kuroko’s business didn’t have anything to do with him on a personal level.

 

As a childhood friend, and as someone who always stood by his side through good and bad moments, Aomine had the right to learn about the bluenette’s version of this little… _something_ that was happening between him and his boss.

 

“Ahh… ‘Gotta get back inside…” sighed Aomine, departing his back from the closed door and then turning around, his hand readily opening it so he could access the kitchen and then the counter area. He didn’t really know how much time had went by since he pretty much run off from near the bathroom’s door so he wondered if both of them were still there or if they had went out already. The tanned male sure hoped Kuroko hadn’t left the nightclub yet, even if his things where being stored inside of the counter to prevent any theft.

 

Aomine casually walked back to inside of the counter area, his blue eyes scanning that area to see if the bluenette and the redhead had already got back up to the seating area. There was still no sign of them. To play safe, he motioned over in the purple haired male’s direction and stopped beside him.

 

“Hey, I’m back. Have you seen Tetsu or Akashi?” asked the tanned male, his eyes still slightly searching around, this time in the dance floor’s direction.

 

“Nope, I haven’t seen any of them for quite a while…” answered Murasakibara, sluggishly munching on a pocky stick. Though it wasn’t really recommended to eat while in service, the two managers of the nightclub had opened an exception for him to eat his snacks: he could do it whenever he wasn’t serving any customer or doing any other thing related to his functions as a bartender.

 

“Ah, I see…” acknowledged Aomine, fully returning to his position behind the counter afterwards.

 

 _Are they… still at it? Tetsu doesn’t really have that much stamina so… I’m worried,_ inwardly mumbled the tanned male as he heaved a deep sigh. Seeing as there were no customers to serve drinks at the moment, he picked up a new washed glass and started to dry it with the towel, every now and then skirting his eyes around to see if he could find any signs of the bluenette.

 

After long minutes had gone by and having dried five more glasses, Aomine finally spotted Kuroko, not exactly in the conditions that he really would have liked to see him in but not entirely unexpected, taking into consideration his weak body constitution when it came to physical activities.

 

“Daiki, since Tetsuya isn’t feeling on top shape at the moment, I’ll be taking him home,” announced Akashi, the bluenette being carried on his back while tightly keeping his face hidden in his shoulder. “Tetsuya told me that you have been keeping his things here in the counter with you.”

 

“O-Oh, right,” acknowledged Aomine, staggeringly setting down the glass on the counter and then quickly motioning over to the place where he had put the bluenette’s jacket and personal things. As he walked back with the smaller male’s belongings on his hands, he intently kept his gaze on both of them. “Will you be able to find Tetsu’s apartment? I don’t think it’s that far from here, especially if you’re going by car, but…”

 

“We’ll be fine, I’m sure,” answered Akashi, giving a quick upturn to the corner of his lips as he took a hold of the bluenette’s belongings with one of his hands. “Daiki, please inform Shuuzou that I’ll be stepping out for a while and that I’ll be back in… Well, just tell him that I’ll be outside of the nightclub for a short period of time.”

 

“Sure…” acknowledged Aomine with a short nod of his head. He switched his gaze from the redhead to his childhood friend, who still remained in the same half-hidden position since he had arrived. “Tetsu, hey… Are you feeling okay?”

 

Very slowly, Kuroko took his face out from the redhead’s shoulder and shyly peered over to the tanned male, his cheeks painted with an extremely accentuated pinkish blush. He gave a quick, but soft, nod with his head and then returned his feature to the new-found hiding location.

 

 _Ah… He probably can’t walk. It can happen from time to time, usually in the beginning, or if it was too intense,_ inwardly cringed Aomine, feeling a sudden urge to face palm himself. He had never thought that there would come a day when both of them would share a common trait in their sex lives. _Since Tetsu hates to lose and has a very strong sense of pride, he must be agonizing quite a lot right now…_

 

“Text me when you get home or if there’s any problem, okay?” added Aomine, rubbing lightly the back of his neck as he continued to look to the bluenette, an understanding expression on his features when the other male simply nodded his head once again while holding his body secure against the redhead’s back.

 

“Don’t forget to warn Shuuzou, then,” finally said Akashi, adjusting the body on his back slightly before starting to walk away in the exit’s direction.

 

The tanned male kept the two smaller males under his continuous gaze until they once again disappeared from his field of vision and then released a long and loud sigh, audible even with the always present booming music played by Kise in the DJ booth. “I definitely need a drink as soon as this night ends…”

 

_I’ve never seen Tetsu making that type of face in all 15 years I’ve known him, much less clinging to another human being ever since the night he became mute…_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahahahahaha! Now you know who was the person who tried to open the bathroom's door while AkaKuro was having their fun-fun time together~  
> And, for those who noticed it, yes, I'm implying that in Aomine's relationship with Kagami, Aomine is the uke/bottom :P (and that both of them are probably into very hot and steamy sex, if Kagami can manage to put Aomine not walking afterwards~ hehehehe~ *sly smirk*)
> 
> Twitter: https://twitter.com/Mafy_mod  
> Tumblr: http://mafymod.tumblr.com/


	11. Angel’s Kiss

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, minna-san~ Mafy's here with another chapter!
> 
> Things are starting to look good on me as my schedule continues as hectic as ever, but I've finally settled down enough to manage to find time to write and work on my translations while trying to survive those killer hours on the hotel!  
> So, you MIGHT get more than one chapter per month for Break My Silence and Code M~
> 
> Anyways~ Enjoy and relish on what you were curious about~ Because, for those who remember my words, I did say I would cockblock Akashi and Kuroko, hehehe *evil smirk*

As soon as they reached the parking lot, Akashi softly put Kuroko back down on the floor, carefully certifying himself that he could now remain in a standing position without having his legs give in, like it had happened on the bathroom as they were cleaning up and fixing their clothes after the unexpected love making session that occurred there. The redhead lead the smaller male to his car and unlocked it, opening the front passenger seat’s door for him to step inside, quickly closing the door after the bluenette had settled himself in a comfortable position and then motioning over to the driver seat.

 

“Tetsuya, what’s your address?” asked Akashi after having put his safety belt. He turned his head to face the bluenette, a soft smile on his lips.

 

Kuroko could only tilt his head at the question, a lost expression on his features as he stared back to the redhead.

 

“Yes, I know. If it would be my choice, I would immediately take you to my apartment and make a mess of you all over again,” confessed Akashi, a small smirk starting to tug at the corners of his previous soft smile. He could truly only chuckle at the cute reaction that the smaller male had at his words – even though the parking lot was considerably dark, Akashi could clearly see the crimson shade of red that covered the entirety of Kuroko’s face. “However, I have to take you home or I have a feeling that Daiki will kill me, the way he was glaring at me when we were leaving the bar area.”

 

 _Ahomine-kun…_ inwardly cringed Kuroko as he rolled his eyes. He motioned his hand over to his jacket’s pocket and took from there his cell phone, quickly opening the text editor so he could write a message for the redhead.

 

_[I apologize for Aomine-kun’s behavior. Like I told you, he takes his overprotectiveness to the max as soon as I start getting friendly with someone. I didn’t really expect him to glare at you, though, since you are his boss.]_

 

“You don’t have to apologize, Tetsuya,” said Akashi, a soft smile once again on his features. “Since Daiki doesn’t know of our current circumstances, it’s normal for him to be worried about you. I bet he will try to talk with you as soon as his shift ends or when he gets a break. I do wonder what you will tell him if he questions you about why you can’t exactly walk right now.”

 

“…!” Kuroko immediately felt his face ignite once again on fire when he heard those teasing words actually come out of the serious looking redhead seating next to him, a sort of mischievous glint on his heterochromatic eyes that he would have thought completely impossible if all they had done was greet each other on their first meeting when Akashi unexpectedly came downstairs to the bar area. The bluenette quickly switched his gaze back to his cell phone’s screen, in hopes to write anything about what he had said but not even one word was appearing on his brain that could actually be used at the moment.

 

Akashi chuckled and then softly ran his fingers through the silky blue locks of hair of the smaller male, which brought his stunning teal eyes back to him. “So, what’s your address?”

 

The bluenette felt a huge urge to groan, the way his heart was beating madly at only having the redhead touch his head with gentle movements and an even softer look on his eyes, from what he could gather in the midst of the dark ambience. He really wanted to groan and just let his body and mind return to the mushy mess he had become while on the bathroom, to fill himself, together with his heart, with the warmth that Akashi could give him through his smoldering touch and kisses.

 

But instead of doing such, Kuroko shifted his gaze back to his cell phone, trying not to mind how hot his face felt at the moment due to the massive blush caused by his own thoughts. He quickly wrote a message and turned the screen to the taller male.

 

_[I live in the center of Harajuku, near Yoyogi Park. I can’t really give you the exact address since I only moved there today and haven’t memorized it yet.]_

 

“Right. Daiki did say he and Satsuki invited you here tonight as a celebration for you moving out… of your parent’s house, I suppose?” added Akashi, facing forward as he turned the car’s engine on. “Are you living alone or are you sharing the house with someone else?”

 

_[You could say I’m sharing it with ‘someone’ else, I guess. And no, I moved out of my grandmother’s house. Both my father and my mother have passed away.]_

 

“…” Akashi was about to put the car on motion when the bluenette flashed him that message, his eyes hovering over the last sentence written on the screen. “I’m sorry to hear that, Tetsuya.”

 

 _Don’t be,_ inwardly said Kuroko, his eyes tightly closing for a fraction of a second and his hand tightening its grip on his cell phone. He couldn’t really avoid the crawling of his free hand to his own lower abdomen, his fingers wrapping around his clothes and grabbing at them for dear life. The bluenette could already feel his breath getting caught up in his throat when the taller male sitting next to him spoke a few more words.

 

“Since I can’t exactly take my eyes off of the road while driving, how exactly are you going to explain me the way to your apartment…?” voiced out Akashi, talking more to himself than to the bluenette. He kept peering over to Kuroko for a couple of seconds and then an idea popped up in his head. “Let’s do the following. I’ll make you questions that can be answered with ‘yes’ or ‘no’ and when you want to say ‘yes’, tap your finger on the door or somewhere else one time. If it’s a ‘no’, then tap two times.”

 

Kuroko tilted his head slightly to the left. His previous strained expression readily changed to a curious one, his eyebrows a little bit perked up as he thought about what the redhead was suggesting. No one had ever tried to develop a method of communication with him when they were in situations where they couldn’t take a peek to his cell phone or to whichever written method he was using to speak with the other party. No one had ever bothered to try to think up of a solution for it and, since it wasn’t really a problem as far as it concerned the bluenette, Kuroko hadn’t tried to think up any of his own either.

 

However, Akashi, even without being asked for or listening to the suggestion of anyone, was trying to maintain the conversation going in between them. Akashi wanted him to tell him more things. Akashi wanted to _know_ him.

 

Almost as if it was second nature to him, Kuroko motioned his hand over to the door, to the area below the window, and tapped the tip of his nail one time on its rough and hard surface. His eyes never departed from the redhead as he did such.

 

“Perfect,” acknowledged Akashi, a smile stretching his lips across his features. He motioned his hand to the ignition key once again and this time around really put the car in motion. “Ready to go?”

 

_Tap._

 

At hearing that soft tapping sound, Akashi felt his lips stretch even further to form a smiling expression that he had never seen in himself. Just like his heart had never really soared with the happiness he was currently feeling – whether when he was dealing with his family or with his friends or acquaintance or even with any person he has had a romantic relationship with before.

 

“You said your apartment is in Harajuku, near Yoyogi Park,” started saying Akashi, smoothly taking his car out of the small underground parking lot placed underneath ‘Kaiser des Lichts’ and entering in one of the packed-with-people streets of Roppongi. “Were you the one who chose that area or was simply because it was the most convenient one for you? Ah… tap once for the first question and twice for the second.”

 

_Tap._

 

“Is the college you are attending near that area, then?” asked further Akashi, an amused expression on his face as he lead the car through the streets in what would be, unfortunately, the shortest car trip of his life – Roppongi and Yoyogi Park were only a 15-minutes ride from one another, even with severe traffic conditions.

 

_Tap. Tap tap._

 

“I’ll take that as a more or less,” acknowledged Akashi in between chuckles. “Hm… Did you choose that location because of the park?”

 

Kuroko immediately switched his gaze from the night street view to the redhead, whose eyes remained stuck to the road except for the short instant when he sideways glanced at him.

 

_Tap._

 

“Oh, I guessed this one,” amusingly said Akashi, the corners of his lips perking up for a fraction of a second and then settling once again in the previous soft smile. “And does it have anything to do with your mysterious, high salary work?”

 

Kuroko soundlessly chuckled at that question.

 

_Tap tap._

 

“You are totally thinking ‘Try again next time’ right now, aren’t you?” asked Akashi, using the opportunity where he had to stop the car due to the red sign ahead of them to fully look over in the bluenette’s direction. When he saw the challenging soft smirk on the smaller male’s face, he didn’t even need to hear him tapping his finger once on the door. He put both of his arms on top of the steering wheel and lovingly stared at Kuroko while leaning his chin on his forearms. “You really have me wondering about your job. A work performed by a college student which enables him to earn more than a professional basketball player… A work that in the beginning wasn’t as profitable as it is now… Won’t you give me a little clue, Tetsuya?”

 

Once again chuckling without making any sound, Kuroko gave a quick shrug with his shoulders and softly shook his head.

 

“I’m not trying to cheat,” added Akashi, turning his face to the road once again when he noticed the car in front of them starting to move once again. “I would give you a little clue for your own mystery-in-need-to-be-solved in exchange.”

 

_Tap tap._

 

“So stubborn… Without receiving any clues, it will take much longer for the both of us to solv—“ started pointing out Akashi, but he cut his own words short when he noticed a hidden particularity that the bluenette’s stubbornness was bringing forward. If they were to take longer to solve the two mysteries and weren’t allowed to straight out give clues to one another, it meant they would have to spend more time together and read between the lines by using their interactions with each other. The smirk was unconscious, but the redhead’s lips still twisted into one with the wave of excitement that such a discovery caused in him. “Well, I guess that purposely giving clues to one another can be put aside for an unlimited amount of time.”

 

_Tap._

 

“It’s a deal, then,” acknowledged Akashi, trying to keep his growing smirk to the bare minimum – he feared the bluenette would think he was planning some sort of background scheme due to his expression, since Nijimura always made question of addressing to his smirk as ‘the smile displayed on the devil’s face’. “Ah… I really hate to announce this but we are 5 minutes away from Yoyogi Park. Which way should we take from here? Left? Right? Or continue to go straight ahead?”

 

_Tap._

 

“Left it is,” acknowledged Akashi, softly nodding his head once. “When you see your apartment, tap your finger and point in its direction, so I can find a place to park the car.”

 

After a couple of minutes went by, Kuroko gave a quick tap with the tip of his nail on the door and motioned his hand forward, his finger pointing to a tall apartment complex in the midst of several others, some of them featuring a clothes store on the ground floor – Harajuku was famous for its high quality clothing stores, after all, and it was mostly occupied during the day time by hordes of young people who visit or worked in them, one way or another.

 

“Right,” acknowledged Akashi once again, driving his car to a free parking spot on the surrounding area of the building the smaller male had indicated. Of course, he readily made question to mentally memorize its location, even if he still didn’t know which floor or apartment Kuroko resided in. Or who was the other ‘someone’ he had said he lived with – he was 100% sure it wasn’t a lover or the bluenette wouldn’t have involved himself in such a sexual way with him, but he felt somewhat irked by whoever it would turn out to be.

 

Once the car came to a stop and the engine was turned off, Kuroko took off his seatbelt but remained in the exact same place, making no further movement to get out of the car. It felt awkward. What was he supposed to do in this type of situation? They had met that afternoon and, even though they weren’t even dating (which would be something impossible due to the small amount of time they have known each other), they had…

 

 _Ugh… Can someone please slap me and take this type of thoughts out of my head?_ , inwardly mumbled Kuroko, feeling his face once again heat up to burning levels and gain an accentuated red blush.

 

With clumsy movements, the bluenette once again took his cell phone out of his jacket’s pocket and opened the text editor, thinking about what exactly was he going to write there during the few seconds it took him to do all of those motions.

 

_[It might sound weird, taking the time of the day and the place where we came from into consideration, but would you like to have a cup of coffee or tea?]_

 

“Yes, Tetsuya,” answered Akashi, a new soft smile popping up in his features at the invitation. He would actually get to know in person the living quarters of the bluenette and survey who was the unknown flat mate – not like his usual behavior, to already be so possessive of someone who he had known for less than 12 hours. “I would love to.”

 

Kuroko gave an acknowledging shy nod with his head and turned his body around to open the door. His legs were probably shaking more due to nervousness than actually the still-present heaviness of his body caused by the previous ‘bathroom activity’ when he got up and motioned outside of the car to the front of his apartment complex. He waited for a couple of seconds for the redhead to also exit his car and lock it, and then both of them started walking side by side to the front door of the tall building.

 

“When you said your apartment is near Yoyogi Park, you should have simply said that it’s _in front_ of the park,” pointed out Akashi as he took a peek to behind himself and saw a mass of green, a dark hue of it due to the late hour of the day. “I would actually ask you about how you managed to get your nest in such a well-located area, but I do believe such will be answered in the near future.”

 

At hearing the redhead’s words, Kuroko couldn’t help but roll his eyes as he inserted the front door’s code and unlocked it, both of them motioning further inside as they passed through the glass doors that readily opened. He quickly wrote a new message on his cell phone and turned the screen over to the taller male.

 

_[You should scratch the “near” from your sentence, Akashi-kun. It’s just a friendly advice but please consider it.]_

 

“You know that saying that will only make me more eager to dig it up, right?” pointed out Akashi, an eyebrow slightly perked up as he switched his heterochromatic eyes from the cell phone’s screen to the smaller male. Kuroko readily collected the electric device and wrote another message, turning it over to him once again afterwards.

 

_[Feel free to be eager over it. It won’t change the amount of time that it will take.]_

 

“Really? You would get surprised at how quickly I put certain things into motion,” added Akashi, a smirk popping up in his features and tugging the corner of his lips in a devilish way. “Or maybe you already have a small notion of such, taking this day’s latter half into consideration.”

 

Kuroko immediately averted the redhead’s gaze when he heard those words, a soft shade of red dusting his pale cheeks. And he knew that right now the taller male would be able to see him blushing since the entrance of his apartment complex was thoroughly illuminated due to the late hour. He continued to motion forward, followed by Akashi, in the stairs’ direction, passing by the lift but ignoring it completely.

 

“We’re not using the lift?” asked Akashi, noticing that the bluenette hadn’t even spared a single glance to the quickest method to reach whichever was the floor he was living in.

 

_[I had to use the lift all morning to carry my things to my apartment. Since it’s only until the second floor, please spare me another trip on it.]_

 

“Ahahaha! Okay, I get it,” laughed Akashi as he observed the displeased expression on the smaller male’s face at the prospect of having to go for another travel on the lift. “I don’t really mind but will you be okay?”

 

Seeing the almost instant blank expression that popped up on the bluenette’s face when he finished making that question, Akashi knew right away that he was now observing one of the personality traits that Aomine had told him about. Kuroko Tetsuya hated to lose and the thought of not being able to climb two laces of stairs would obviously be taken as a loss in his eyes, especially with him being a witness to such.

 

The smaller male turned around on his heels and opened the door that lead to the first lance of stairs, Akashi’s heterochromatic eyes observing him to the detail. He didn’t add anything else when Kuroko slowly started to climb the stair. He didn’t because it would be sort of amusing to see the bluenette look over in his direction and just plead him with his teal eyes for some sort of help.

 

However, though it took quite a bit of time, the two successfully reached the second floor, Akashi’s plans for that little moment gone completely down the drain when Kuroko’s two feet touched the platform.

 

 _Well, I guess this just means I will have to try harder next time,_ inwardly pointed out the redhead, a smirk on his lips as he let the smaller male lead him outside of the stairs and into the corridor that connected all of the apartments of that floor. _Hard enough for him to not be able to get away from me until the upcoming week… or better yet, never again._

 

After they fully exited the stairs and walked for a couple of seconds, Kuroko came to a halt in front of a door, a tag with his full name spelled on the side, together with the number his apartment corresponded to: 15. He looked over to the redhead and pointed with his index finger to the door, signalizing that they had arrived to their destination.

 

Akashi gave a soft nod in acknowledgment and waited for the bluenette to take his apartment’s keys out of one of his jacket’s pockets. However, as soon as the metallic object clanked around, a loud thumping sound could be heard from inside of the bluenette’s living space. The redhead immediately arched an eyebrow as the sound grew closer and closer to the door.

 

As soon as Kuroko inserted the key on the hole and unlocked his apartment, the door came flying open, the bluenette skillfully averting being hit by it but still being thrown on the floor – not by the momentum of the sudden outburst but by a massive black and white dog that jumped at him and started licking his whole face, his furry tail moving around in happiness.

 

“Are you okay, Tetsuya?” asked Akashi, lowering his body slightly and motioning his hand forward to help the smaller male getting up once again. But he had to retract his hand as quickly as he could, for the dog unexpectedly turned his face in his direction and showed his powerful and sharp fangs, a loud growling sound exiting his throat.

 

Kuroko motioned his body up to a sitting position and gave a quick tap with his finger on the tip of the dog’s black nose. It readily made the humongous beast turn his face back to him and sit down on the floor with an obedient stance. The bluenette ruffled the dog’s ears with affection and then fully got up once again, leading his pet back inside of his apartment when he also got on all fours.

 

However, as soon as Akashi took a step forward to get inside of the smaller male’s apartment, the dog once again turned his head around and started growling at him, positioning himself in front of his owner as if to guard him against an incoming danger.

 

 _Yes, I definitely will not be able to get along with the ‘someone’ Tetsuya is living together with,_ confirmed Akashi in the back of his mind, his eyes carefully looking over to the dog as he waited for the moment he would jump at him, only this time it would be to rip his throat and not shower him with loving licks.

 

“Tetsuya, I don’t think your dog is having a very good first impression of me,” said the redhead, lifting his eyes from the furry animal to look in the smaller male’s direction.

 

With hurried and flustered movements, Kuroko grabbed his cell phone once again and started writing on the electric device, having to stretch his arm the most he could afterwards due to the distance put between him and the redhead by one of the members of his family.

 

_[I’m so sorry, Akashi-kun. I don’t know what exactly is going on with Nigou. He’s usually very well behaved and extremely kind with other people, even on their first meeting. I can put him in my bedroom during the time you are inside of my apartment, if you want.]_

 

“No, it’s okay,” answered Akashi, his head shaking slightly. “I guess our conversation is not meant to happen this night. Seeing as you have been safely delivered back to your apartment, I’ll take my leave now. I do have to go back to the nightclub, after all, or Shuuzou will try to kill me too tomorrow.”

 

Kuroko’s gaze immediately dropped at hearing those words. Even though he felt quite nervous at the prospect of having the redhead entering inside of his apartment, he also wanted to share another small meal with him. No, he _really_ wanted to share one more small meal with Akashi.

 

“But before that, can you give me your contact details, Tetsuya?” added Akashi. When the bluenette lifted his head once again and looked over in his direction with teal eyes open in surprise, the redhead softly smiled at him as he took his cell phone from his suit’s inner pocket and motioned the electric device in his direction.

 

“…” Kuroko kept switching his gaze between the taller male’s face and the cell phone being delivered to him for a couple of seconds and then nodded his head in agreement. He took the cell phone on his hands and quickly wrote his cell phone number and email address in the contact info page that had been open for him, motioning his hand forward afterwards to return it to its owner.

 

But such an exchange ended up not happening.

 

The bluenette dropped his hand down and gave a few steps forward, walking around Nigou, who released a soft whimper to stop the anew departure of the smaller male, in order to reach the beginning of his apartment’s entrance. He stopped in front of Akashi, inserted his cell phone on his hand and tiptoed just the slightest. His lips once again met with the redhead’s in a quick, gentle and soft kiss – far too short for him but it was all Kuroko could manage at the moment without having his face combust in blazing flames.

 

“…”

 

As soon as their lips separated an inch, Kuroko quickly withdrew back to his apartment’s insides, his face burning with higher temperatures than a metal-melting furnace. While softly closing the door, the bluenette took a quick peek in the taller male’s direction, but his dead embarrassment forced him to shut the door close before his eyes landed on Akashi’s face.

 

“Shit…” cursed Akashi, his free hand motioning up and fingers running through his red locks of hair. In his cheeks remained a very soft shade of pink as he kept his gaze on the obstacle that was currently preventing him to have access to what he was once again craving to have. “You can’t just kiss me with _that_ kind of expression on you and then close the door on my face, Tetsuya. You’re supposed to keep your dog in the bathroom or in any other place and keep _me_ in your bedroom until morning time.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had tears in my eyes when Akashi thought up a method to continue to talk with Kuroko even without resorting to messages! It was a pretty simple and basic strategy but it tugged at my heart's strings for some reason >.< However... I TOTALLY AGREE WITH AKASHI!!! Kuroko should have pulled him inside of his apartment and just go down on each other again!! (because fuck me if it isn't want BOTH of them want right now XD) Nigou, for your first ever appearance in one of my fics, you sure ruined the perfect chance to enjoy more smutty scenes between our devilish angel and lovely bluenette ToT
> 
> Twitter: https://twitter.com/Mafy_mod  
> Tumblr: http://mafymod.tumblr.com/


	12. Field of Hearts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, minna-san! Here is the monthly chapter for Break My Silence ^.^
> 
> It's really a pity that I can't update more frequently for this fic since I'm so very excited to see what exactly happens after this chapter XD I mean, how can I not!? Read to find out what I'm talking about~
> 
> Enjoy!

After having taken off his sweaty and stained-with-more-than-sweat clothes, Kuroko made an extremely slow bee-line to his bedroom’s bathroom, so he could fully cleanse his body and hopefully eliminate all the traces in it that were making him burn for more of Akashi.

 

 _Just… What exactly is going on with me tonight?,_ inwardly admonished Kuroko as he turned on the hot water in the shower and put himself underneath it, relishing in the gentle caresses of the water raining down on his skin. He inaudibly sighed, forming a little bowl with his hands to gather water on them and then throwing that very same water to his face, even though it was already being hit by it. _I completely lost control of the things I was doing, didn’t I…?_

 

Kuroko hated the thought of one-night stands or of involving himself with someone in a physical sense only. Not due to lack of offers, for it was quite common for him to receive invitations from both sexes when he was out at night in a nightclub – though it was more than obvious that or he immediately refused them or Aomine or Kagami would show up and save him the trouble of doing such. (He actually never quite understood why he had already received three times more invitations in that regard than the tanned male, who had gone through quite wild years back in the days.)

 

Either way it went, the bluenette simply didn’t involve himself with another human being in such intimate ways if he wouldn’t be in a romantic relationship with the other counterpart. Which was exactly his current humongous problem.

 

He had sex with Akashi – a man who he knew for less than 12 hours – inside of a toilet of a nightclub, which coincidentally is the redhead’s working place and it occurred during his working hours.

 

Worse than that, in those less than 12 hours that he had interacted with him, Kuroko had unmistakably fallen in love with him. He had fallen in love with a man who he only walked around with in order to check the work of the redhead’s employees and then enjoyed a quick snack with.

 

Furthermore, up until a few hours ago, he had been a completely inexperienced young man in the arts of sensual pleasures, one that had never dated anyone before. Hell, he hadn’t even kissed anyone before that night.

 

 _I fell in love with Akashi-kun… and I had s-sex with him…,_ inwardly mumbled Kuroko, his body slowly motioning down as he came to a crouching position. He could feel his insides throbbing and, though very faintly, he could still feel the remnants of having the redhead penetrate him. A glorious blush appeared in the bluenette’s pale features, one that he immediately covered with his hands. _What am I supposed to do now…?_

_I even ended up making sounds, even though I’m not allowed to speak ever again…_

 

-.-

 

Tousling a towel in his wet blue locks of hair, Kuroko finally came out of his bedroom and walked through the living room, intending on going to the kitchen so he could give both food and water to Nigou. He didn’t even need to call him out, for the humongous Alaskan Malamute was impatiently waiting for him right in front of the door.

 

The bluenette gave a quick pet to the fluffy head of the dog and continued walking to the kitchen, where he leisurely got Nigou’s dinner – a huge bowl with dog food and another with fresh water – fully prepared. After ruffling the dog’s fur once more time as he motioned over to his food, Kuroko finally went over to the living room, where he noticed that his cell phone was flashing an intermittent light – someone had texted him.

 

With quick and swift movements, he unlocked the cell phone’s screen and readily went for his message inbox, where he found a so familiar name at the top.

 

_[Aomine-kun: Are you feeling okay?]_

 

A soft smile on his lips, Kuroko sighed while rolling his eyes just the slightest, his fingers immediately working up an answer to his (overly protective) childhood friend.

 

_[Kuroko: Yes, I am. Thank you for worrying about me and I’m sorry for leaving so early in the night.]_

 

As he was about to motion his cell phone back to the table and start checking his email, this time in the computer that had also been left on top of the said table, the electronic device beeped and trembled in his hand, warning him that he had received yet another message. Even though Kuroko knew that the tanned male was supposed to be working, he didn’t find it all that weird to see that he had already replied back to him.

 

_[Aomine-kun: If you’re fine, then that’s what matters. But… Um, Tetsu? Can I ask you something?]_

 

An eyebrow readily perking up at reading the new text from the tanned male’s text, Kuroko tilted his head just the slightest as he wondered what had happened. Aomine wasn’t the type of person that asked for permission before he said or asked anything – he was that type of insensitive bastard, after all.

 

_[Kuroko: What is it that you want to ask?]_

 

The bluenette didn’t even have to wait for five seconds before the next text message was received in his inbox… almost as if Aomine had already prepared it beforehand.

 

_[Aomine-kun: What exactly is your and Akashi’s current business?]_

 

 _Huh?,_ inwardly interjected Kuroko, his teal eyes going wide open with that out-of-the-blue question. Shaking his head a little bit to free himself from the surprise he was feeling, he readily went back into texting with his childhood friend.

 

_[Kuroko: Excuse me? What do you mean by that, Aomine-kun?]_

 

_[Aomine-kun: I sorta overheard you two in the toilet.]_

_[Aomine-kun: Sorry, Tetsu, but you were busted in the middle of naughty action with Akashi.]_

 

“…” Kuroko heavily slammed his face against the table, his arms wrapping around the back of his head while still clutching at the electronic device. The person who had tried to open the locked toilet door… just had to be Aomine Daiki, out of all workers and clients of the nightclub. He was sort of thankful that it hadn’t been Momoi (which would be unlikely to happen, seeing as they were inside of the male bathroom), but it didn’t change that it had been the last person he had wanted to see it happen with. _Really, can this get any worse…?_

 

After regaining a little bit of his composure, Kuroko straightened his body once again and quickly started working around a reply to the tanned male.

_[Kuroko: Whatever you are thinking that this is, you are wrong.]_

 

_[Aomine-kun: Oh? So it’s not like you are sex friends now or that you just had a one night fling with him?]_

 

The bluenette immediately felt his jaw opening at the words he was reading written on his cell phone’s screen. Aomine knew him better than anyone… so how come he had even considered those two options for this whole situation?

 

_[Kuroko: No! Of course not! It just somehow ended up happening, okay? Please don’t enter in weird misunderstandings with me, even less with Akashi-kun, who, I must remind you, is your boss.]_

_[Aomine-kun: So you just went and fucked with my boss in the toilet of his nightclub, after having met him for the first time that very same afternoon?]_

_[Aomine-kun: That’s not like the Tetsu that I know. Like, at all!]_

_[Aomine-kun: Oh, by the way! Congratz on losing your virginity (•̀o•́)_ _ง_ _]_

 

“…” Once again, Kuroko heavily slammed his face against the table, his blush going as far as the tips of his ears. Yes, there was absolutely _nothing_ that could make this situation even worse than it already was, especially now that Aomine, out of all the human beings in the world, had used an emoticon.

 

_[Kuroko: Aomine-kun, please just shut up and let me die with the shame that I’m already feeling all by myself. I don’t need to add your teasing into it to making me feel even worse.]_

 

Settling his cell phone once again on top of the table, Kuroko motioned his hands over to his laptop and turned it on, in hopes that he could get just a little bit distracted of this whole situation… something that the tanned male seemed pretty adamant to allow, as the quickness of his replies were proving.

 

_[Aomine-kun: It’s not like I’m trying to tease you or some shit like that, I just want to figure out what the fuck happened this night.]_

_[Aomine-kun: No pun intended.]_

_I would like to know the very same thing,_ inwardly sighed Kuroko, trying to think up some sort of explanation to the fact that he had sleep with Akashi in the very same day he had met him, not only to his childhood friend, but to himself.

 

The only thing that really came to mind was the fact that he fell in love pretty much at first sight with the heterochromatic redhead… but Kuroko didn’t truly believe that could really explain what he had done without knowing Akashi’s own version of the events revolving around him in the latest hours.

 

Just because someone was in love with another person, it didn’t mean that the other counterpart of the romantic affections actually corresponded in the same way.

 

Akashi had told him that he hadn’t drank anything with alcohol throughout the whole opening party and Kuroko had the impression that he wasn’t exactly the type of man that would say “Screw work!” and have a little escapade in the toilet with another male during his so important working hours. He knew all that but…

 

“…”

 

Releasing one more inaudible sigh, Kuroko returned his gaze back to his laptop, quickly opening his email inbox. The very first email in there readily caught his attention and he immediately opened it and scanned his eyes through its contents. After he had finished reading its entirety, the bluenette took a glimpse to the digital clock features in the right bottom side of the screen, which marked a couple of minutes past 3am.

 

He quickly grabbed his cell phone and started writing a new reply to the tanned male, but the electronic device suddenly beeped and vibrated with the income of a new text. And this time around it hadn’t been from Aomine.

 

_[Akashi-kun: Tetsuya, would you be free to meet with me tomorrow? We have yet to get the pastry that was arranged to happen after we left “Kaiser”. Or the cup of coffee or tea that you invited me to have at your apartment. But I think those two reasons are only excuses to have the promised conversation with you.]_

 

Feeling his heart once again go through a maddening quick rhythm and a soft blush appearing in his cheeks, Kuroko quickly worked up a reply to the redhead, putting on the side the one that he had been writing to his childhood friend.

 

_[Kuroko: If it’s done after 5pm, then please tell me the location where I can meet with you, Akashi-kun.]_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> God, I cracked so very much at the thought of having Aomine tease Kuroko on the phone due to having heard him and Akashi having "naught action" in the bathroom that I went as far as search for ONE whole hour for the ideal emoticon to use in that congratulatory sentence XD And I think I hit jackpot with that one, didn't I? *winks*
> 
> Then again, I wonder where both the email that Kuroko has received, as well as a new invitation to meet with Akashi will take our love-struck babies~
> 
> Twitter: https://twitter.com/Mafy_mod  
> Tumblr: http://mafymod.tumblr.com/


	13. Dark Nightmare

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, minna-san! Mafy's here... with another late chapter -.-'
> 
> Well, with the contents of this chapter, who can blame me for having taken a long time to do it... *sniff* My poor baby... *sniff* Having said that...
> 
> WARNING: depiction of past abuse and "possible" murder attempt
> 
> Enjoy! (if such is even possible TToTT)

The scent of incense burning, mingling together with the incessant murmuring coming from the people clothed in black fabrics.

 

_“To die so young and in such a terrible way… I’ve been wondering for a while now how the son survived and the father died in such a pitiful way.”_

 

The sound of the clock ticking, announcing the continuity of the never ending dismay his younger self was subjected to day after day.

 

_“Mother, is dinner read—“_

_“Shut up! Don’t speak to me! Go back to your room! I don’t want to see you!!”_

 

Hit after hit… Wound after wound… The clock continued to tick and time wasn’t an ally to the young child as he grew older – the defenselessness that should have been lost with the passage of time ever remained and growing up became a curse rather than salvation by the approaching of adulthood.

 

_“The teacher requested for the students to have their grades checked by the parents. Mother, could you please sign this paper?”_

_“…Why…? He’s gone from this world… Because of you, he’s gone… For so, so long… Then why…? WHY DO YOU ACT JUST LIKE HIM, TETSUYA!? WHY DO YOU SPEAK AND SOUND JUST LIKE YOUR FATHER!? I HATE YOU! YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN THE ONE TO DIE!”_

_“Ugh…! I… I’m sorry, Mother…”_

_“STOP! Just stop acting like him! Stop talking like him! …Why were you even born…?”_

 

However, time had to flow. Days had to pass. And children had to grow.

 

_“Mother, what was that sound!? Are you okay?”_

_“Why, Tetsuya…? Why are you just like your father? Why is your voice the same? Why do you ask me the same questions as him? Why is your handwriting even the same? WHY DO YOU HAVE TO BE THE SAME AS HIM AND YET NOT BE HIM!?”_

_“Mot— Ugh!”_

_“Die! If he’s dead and you’re the same as him… then die! I hate you! I hate you so very much! That’s why… I will…!”_

_“Ngh…”_

_“Just die already! Why aren’t you dead? Do I need to hit you more? Do I need to make you starve more? DO I NEED TO HATE YOU EVEN MORE?”_

_“…”_

_“Why aren’t you saying anything now!? Come on! Scream! Ask for help! Beg me to stop!”_

_“Ugh…”_

_“Did your father ask for help when he was dying by your side? Come on, Tetsuya! Say it! Tell me which your father’s last words were in the same voice that he had!!”_

_“Ack…! Ugh…”_

_“Tetsuya, I hate you! You should have never been born!”_

 

“——————!!”

 

Suddenly motioning his body upwards, Kuroko frenetically shoved the sheets covering his body and nervously touched his stomach, already expecting to find his body and clothes once again soaked in blood. Luckily, the only liquid he found there was his own sweat, even if his mind was forcing his teal eyes to spot red staining the entirety of his surroundings. He could even fell his skin being pierced and ripped again and again. And then…

 

That final lifeless weigh crushing his barely breathing body and pinning it down motionless to the bloodied floor.

 

“—!” All of a sudden, Kuroko clutched his mouth close with his hands and jumped out of his covered-in-sweat bed, running the quickest he could to the small bathroom attached to his bedroom. Door being open ajar, the bluenette readily motioned to the toilet and opened the lid, spilling the remnants of the light snack he had eaten before going to bed and fully emptying his stomach until there was nothing left in it. “Haa… haa…”

 

“Woof…” whined Nigou as he entered inside of the bathroom and rubbed his muzzle against his owner’s lap. He sat down near the bluenette and gave a soft and gentle lick to his paler face when Kuroko feebly turned it over in his direction. “Woof, woof…”

 

Seeing the worried glint in the also teal eyes of his pet dog, Kuroko straightened his body while sat down on the floor and motioned his hand over in his direction, lovingly patting the dog’s head between his fluffy ears.

 

“Woof…” whined once again Nigou as he resumed with gently lick the bluenette’s face and, with it, hide the tears that silently rained down through his pale features.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> God, my pure lil' bluenette... He desperately needs someone to heal his broken heart, someone who can love him and tell him that everything is okay *sniff* Wait... He just recently met that someone, didn't he? And if I'm not mistaken, soon they will be meeting each other for the second time~
> 
> Twitter: https://twitter.com/Mafy_mod  
> Tumblr: http://mafymod.tumblr.com/  
> Website: https://mafymod13.wixsite.com/hiejimamutsumi


	14. The Breakfast Drink

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, minna-san! Mafy's here with a surprise release, I guess ^.^
> 
> I know that the release schedule for this fic is at the 15th of every month, but I had to release this chapter earlier since... August is AoKaga Month! And, to celebrate it, you'll get to have a KagaAo side story associated with Break My Silence XD
> 
> Hence, you now know which character will be introduced to the story with this chapter, don't you? *winks*
> 
> Enjoy!

Kuroko had just finished getting dressed and was exiting his bedroom when his doorbell echoed through the whole apartment. Nigou, who had been following him around the whole morning as he got ready to go out, readily perked up his ears at the sound, his gaze directed to the still closed door.

 

The bluenette gave a quick pet to the dog’s head and then started walking towards the door, opening it softly after having unlocked the security lock that his apartment complex housed in all front doors of every apartment – yet another particularity about his new house that had led him to sign the contract. When his head hesitantly peeked outside, Nigou furiously passed through in between his legs and happily jumped at the person behind the door.

 

“Geh! Nigou, you bastard…!” yelped a male voice, coming down from the floor. Sighing softly, Kuroko opened the door completely and peered down, where he found an all so familiar redhead being pinned down on the floor by Nigou, his face covered in drool as the dog continuously licked it. “Why the heck do you always greet me like this? I’ve never seen you pining Aomine down!”

 

Silently chuckling, Kuroko stepped outside of his apartment and went over to Nigou, softly pulling him out from on top of Kagami Taiga, a close friend of his and the person who had managed to stop Aomine’s crazy years by becoming his lover. They were in a steady and loving relationship for close to three years now.

 

“Had breakfast already?” asked Kagami as he picked himself up from the floor and shook off the countless loose fur that had gotten stuck to his clothes. Grinning happily to the smaller male, the redhead took once again a hold of the shopping bags that were scattered in the floor and started walking towards the open door. “I’ll cook something for you if you haven’t.”

 

Kuroko nodded his head in agreement, a soft smile on his lips as he made way for the taller male to get inside of his apartment. Once the countless shopping bags were all put inside of the entrance hall, he closed the door behind himself and happily carried some of the bags to the kitchen, the redhead walking behind him to be led to the cooking area.

 

“Nice apartment you got yourself in,” said Kagami, whistling softly as he skirted his eyes around through the bluenette’s new living space. “Have you managed to unpack all of your stuff or do you want me to give you a hand?”

 

Kuroko put the bags he was carrying on top of the counter and turned around towards the redhead, his two hands raising in the air, first crossing together, one below the other, and then quickly going their separate ways towards left and right, respectively. He motioned his right hand up to his chin, gave a quick tap with the pads of his fingers in it and then lunged it forwards in the redhead’s direction, a soft smile always present in his lips as he did so.

 

“Ah, is that so? Then I’ll just prepare something for us to eat,” acknowledged Kagami, also putting down the shopping bags in the counter. “What would you prefer: western style or Japanese style breakfast?”

 

Tilting his head slightly to the left, Kuroko thought about the two options being given to him for a couple of seconds and then straightened himself once again. He motioned his hands upwards once again and made a square with his hands, the tips of his thumbs touching while the rest of his fingers arched above them. He softly let them part, at the same time as his upper fingers closed down on his thumbs.

 

“You always answer in the same way, don’t you?” pointed out Kagami, a slight pout on his face. “It wouldn’t hurt you to eat western style breakfast every now and then, would it? One of these days, I’ll make you eat an American breakfast and make you cry for all the times you have chosen to eat Japanese food instead.”

 

Inaudibly chuckling once again, Kuroko turned around on his heels and motioned over to Nigou’s bowls. He picked the water bowl and emptied in the sink, refilling it with fresher one, and then put some more dog food on the other bowl, which Nigou readily started to devour. Soon enough, the sounds of food being prepared started filling the whole kitchen and the mouth watering scent of grilled fish and miso soup being prepared flooded the apartment.

 

Already feeling his stomach turn and grumble for some sustenance, the bluenette motioned over to the cupboards and took the necessary plates and silverware to be used for their breakfast, his eyes never once looking in the redhead’s direction as he prepared the food with swift and trained movements.

 

Kuroko had met Kagami on his first year of college, when the redhead had come to his university as a transfer student from America. Yes, he got pretty surprised to know that Kagami had came all the way to Japan because he was a borrowed player in the same basketball team as Aomine (now an official player there after the amazing result he had brought forward to the team), but he was completely taken aback on their first meeting when he discovered that the redhead was fluent in sign language – a perk of having lived in the States since a child, had claimed Kagami at that time.

 

Some resistance came his way when Aomine got aware of how quickly he and the redhead had became friends, however Kuroko had always a certain suspicion that such had happened only due to the rather unorthodox first meeting that the both of them had.

 

 _Well, I can’t really comment on that now, taking into consideration what happened last night,_ inwardly mumbled Kuroko, a soft shade of pink dusting his cheeks as he put down the plates on the dining table.

 

A couple of minutes later, Kagami carried to the table a magnanimous breakfast set, constituted of grilled salmon, piping hot rice, miso soup adorned with spring onions, tamagoyaki and some picked vegetables. Kuroko could almost feel his saliva starting to dribble down his chin at the sight. Both of them swiftly sat down on the table and distributed the food between themselves, the redhead pilling spoonful after spoonful of rice in his bowl.

 

“Itadakimasu!” thanked Kagami as he immediately started to dig in the food, readily savoring a piece of grilled salmon. Kuroko did the same, though he simply clapped his hands and gave a small bowl with his head before starting to stuff his mouth with small bite-size pieces of the tamagoyaki.

 

They silently enjoyed their food, Kagami throwing glances every now and then to the bluenette and Kuroko pretending that he hadn’t noticed the redhead doing so since the moment he had stepped inside of his apartment.

 

“So… Um… You said you wanted a Japanese style breakfast…” hesitantly said Kagami, his red eyes intently peering over to the smaller male as he drew his chopsticks to his mouth while holding into a bit of rice. “Should I have made sekihan instead of normal rice?”

 

All of a sudden, Kuroko let his chopsticks drop to the table and desperately clutched at his mouth, coughing violently to try to dislocate the piece of pickled vegetables that got stuck on his throat due to the shock that the redhead’s words had caused in him. When he finally got to breathe normally once again, he looked up to the taller male with a questioning face, his teal eyes slightly watery with all the coughing.

 

“Well... Aomine sent me a text last night… or rather, early this morning… saying that you had popped your cherry,” explained Kagami, a slight reluctance still staining his voice. However, when he saw the bluenette drop his head and put his elbow on top of the table’s surface, his hand carefully hiding his face, he knew right away that he had hit the nail in the head. “ Hmm~ So you’ve been secretly dating some chick? Do I know her? Oh wait, it wasn’t Momoi, was it?”

 

At hearing that last question, Kuroko immediately lifted his head, his facial expression pretty much screaming ‘How could you even consider such a thing, Kagami-kun!?’ at the redhead.

 

“Okay, okay, so it wasn’t her,” awkwardly acknowledged Kagami, rubbing the back of his neck. “But Aomine didn’t tell me any details of what happened and just told me that you had sex with someone. So, like I asked you, who’s the girl you’ve been dating?”

 

Inwardly rumbling over whether he should even try to explain the situation to a complete idiot, one that stood on equal terms with Aomine, his childhood friend, or just stop the conversation there, even if Kagami would persistently try to get it out of him, Kuroko hesitantly raised his hands above the table and slightly closed them, forming two circles by joining his thumb with his index finger. He put his hands together for a fraction of a second and then separated them in a straight line, one to the left and the other to the right.

 

“Huh? What do you mean ‘no one’? You’re not like Ahomine so it’s not like you would sleep with someone you’re not even dati—“ started Kagami but when he saw the bluenette readily avert his gaze, a soft shade of pink covering his features, he was forced to came to a halt on his own words as his mouth gaped wide open in surprise. “Wait… You, Kuroko Tetsuya, the person who hates the act of sleeping around the most in the entire universe, just had a one night stand with a chick…?”

 

Still avoiding making direct eye contact with the redhead, and with his blush escalating to bright red, Kuroko closed his left hand to form a fist, took it to his chin and then let it softly fall down a little bit in the table’s direction.

 

“…Eh…?” incredulously interjected Kagami, his eyes blinking several times in quick succession. He must have understood that sign wrong because, if not, the bluenette had just admitted that he had lost his virginity to a… “I-I think I’m still half-asleep here. C-Can you write what you just said?”

 

Rolling his eyes softly, Kuroko motioned his hand to his pants’ pocket and took from there his cell phone, where he quickly opened the text edition and wrote down what he had said in sign language.

 

_[It was with a man.]_

 

“Kurokoooooooooo!” almost cried Kagami, taking his hands up to his head and clutching at his red locks of hair. “I knew that growing up beside that loose aho had affected you in some sort of way. If not in the past, then in the future. What do you mean, ‘it was a man’!? You had a one night stand with a guy!? Where the heck did Ahomine invited you to yesterday for such a disaster to have happened!?”

 

Sighing inaudibly, Kuroko looked back to his cell phone’s screen, erasing the previous message and writing a new one there.

 

_[Please calm down, Kagami-kun. Yes, I slept with a man. Yes, it was in our first meeting. But I don’t think he’s a bad person. Aomine-kun knows him and I think he can voucher for him by saying that he’s not a bad person too.]_

 

“You slept with an acquaintance of his…?” incredulously mumbled Kagami, his eyes once again open in surprise. _Just how ridiculous can this sudden love affair get?_

 

_[Well, technically it’s not an acquaintance. It’s more like… Aomine-kun’s boss.]_

 

“Eh…? Wait, what!? H-His boss!?” yelped Kagami, his mouth gaping wide open one more time. “Aha… Ahahaha… K-Kuroko, jokes like that aren’t funny, you know? Because… by ‘boss’, you mean… Aomine’s boss from his work at that nightclub? You didn’t sleep with him… while still in the nightclub… right?”

 

When Kagami saw Kuroko drop his gaze down to the table, a bright red blush once again covering his entire face, the redhead pretty much felt his stomach sink down to the pits of his abdomen.

 

“Kuroko, sorry but I have to leave now,” announced Kagami, getting up from his chair with a murderous glint in his eyes. “I have to beat some sense into that aho’s head and then have a nice, long talk with his boss.”

 

“…!” Kuroko hurriedly got up from his seat too and skirted around the table, walking as he wrote a new message in his cell phone. Once he managed to catch up with the taller male, he suddenly halted in front of him, lunging his cell phone forward in his face’s direction while also forcing him to stop completely his exit from his apartment.

 

_[I think you are misunderstanding something here, Kagami-kun. Akashi-kun didn’t force me to do anything. Actually, if it hadn’t been him, I would have probably been taken somewhere by some random guy while I was in the dance floor. Though I only met him yesterday, he’s already aware of my aichmophobia and told me that even if I have this disability on me, he could never grow to pity me.]_

 

“But—“ started complaining Kagami, however he was silenced when the bluenette lunged his hand forward in his face’s direction to stop him from speaking and then returned to write some more things in his cell phone.

 

_[I had sex with him because I wanted to. He didn’t do anything to me that I thought of as weird or forceful. Yes, I agree that the location might not have been the most ideal one but I don’t regret it even one bit. I had loads of fun while talking with him before the nightclub opened its doors, too. Besides, I’m meeting up with Akashi-kun today again, after I have a meeting to discuss some things related to my work.]_

 

“Are you in love with him?” straightforwardly inquired Kagami after having read the whole message and letting his red eyes remain in the screen to reread it once again. “I mean, even though you met him yesterday, did you fall in love with him even before you slept with him?”

 

When he looked over to the other male, he saw Kuroko shyly nodding his head in confirmation in the cutest way it was possible for another human being.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Man, Kagami... You always sound like Kuroko's mother/father in my fanfictions XD How adorable can you get?  
> But, more than our adorable tiger... we get to have Kuroko admit that he has fallen in love with Akashi!!!! *squeals loudly while rolling around in the floor*
> 
> Also, my apologies if any of the sign language that I used is incorrect. It's not like there's any online, credible and functional source to learn about sign language. Just a little explanation of the words that Kuroko told to Kagami:  
> 1) no + thank you  
> 2) Japan  
> 3) nobody  
> 4) man  
> (I used the British Sign Language)
> 
> Twitter: https://twitter.com/Mafy_mod  
> Tumblr: http://mafymod.tumblr.com/  
> Website: https://mafymod13.wixsite.com/hiejimamutsumi


	15. Man of the Moment

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, minna-san! Mafy's here with a new chapter ^.^
> 
> I have recently completed my first anniversary as a fanfiction writer! In one year, I've written over 500k words and received over 3k kudos O.O Quite a nice start, won't you agree?  
> I had thought about doing it for a while now but now I fully decided to follow forward with it: every anniversary as a fanfiction writer goes by, I will had a new target-fandom to my stories. My debut series was KnB - my 1st anniversary series is HQ!! (even though I had written a short fic based on a dj almost one year ago). My first original HQ!! fanfiction is out already, getting releases at the lightning speed that I'm famous for so please give it a chance if you are into IwaOi (and other future pairings :3)
> 
> Meanwhile, enjoy this chapter ^.^

“So…” started once again Nijimura, a frown on his face as he looked down at the redhead leisurely checking some papers while sat down on his desk. His hands remained on top of the desk’s surface and his upper body was slightly arched down so that his semblance would seem even more intimidating – not that he really expected it to have any effect in the smaller male, taking his personality into account. “Care to finally explain where the hell did you go last night? You just suddenly run off while we were talking with Shirogane-san and when I got to hear of you next was one whole hour later and because I had the decency to ask in the bar counter for you! I know that you got back at some point, since Shirogane-san told me that he spoke with you a second time. But! What the heck was so important that you, Akashi Seijuurou, the worst kind of workaholic in the entire universe, just skipped his working hours!?”

 

“Well…” finally spoke Akashi, adjusting the papers on his hands and then putting them back in the desk’s surface. He looked over to the black haired male and lightly shrugged his shoulders. “I guess I was suddenly struck by Cupid’s arrow, had to interrupt a kidnap attempt and then appease the gods by following according to their bitter-sweet plans.”

 

“…Huh...?” interjected Nijimura, a completely flabbergasted expression on his face. He quickly straightened his back to a full standing position and crossed his arms over his chest, an eyebrow slightly arched as he carefully took in the redhead’s semblance. “You… Have you finally gone cuckoo in the head?”

 

“Probably,” acknowledged Akashi without a shred of hesitation, a mischievous smirk in his lips. He most likely had gone insane, for he had fallen in love with another male in the span of knowing him for less than 24 hours – not forgetting the fact that they had had sex in the bathroom of his nightclub during his working hours. Yes, he most certainly had gone completely insane due to love.

 

“Do you want me to ask Momoi to get you an appointment to a psychologist or, worst case scenario, a psychiatrist?” teased Nijimura, a smirk also tugging at the corner of his lips as he saw how half heatedly he had meant he had gone _really_ insane.

 

“There’s no need for such,” answered Akashi, getting up from his desk and starting to walk towards the door of his office in the floor above Kaiser des Lichts, his newest establishment that had first opened its doors in the previous night. A bright smile remained in his features as he continued, “I already have an appointment that will make my insanity go away. Or maybe it will actually worsen it. Only time will tell and I’m quite anxious to discover which it will be.”

 

“Ah…” hesitantly acknowledged Nijimura, his head tilted just a little bit to the right as he observed the smaller male open the door and then exit the office. He sighed when the door was softly closed and then unconsciously snorted at what he had just seen. “If what’s going on is what I think it’s going on… I’ll be damned. Hell is about to freeze in order to welcome a new queen.”

 

-.-

 

“’Morning, Akashicchi~” cheerfully greeted Kise, his blonde head peeking out from underneath the table where the DJ machinery was placed. He stood up with a single jump and leisurely cleaned his slightly oily hands in a cloth, before walking over to the redhead. “Yesterday I could have sworn I saw you in the dance floor. Did you get a sudden urge to dance, having to listen to the music I put out~?”

 

“Good morning, Ryouta,” also greeted Akashi, giving a quick upturn to his lips. “Yes, I went indeed to the dance floor but it was for far more pressing matters than suddenly feeling like dancing.”

 

“Eh~ That somehow hurts my feelings, from a DJ’s point of view…” whined Kise, a pouting expression appearing in his features. However, he quickly recovered the blow and smiled brightly to the redhead, confidence erupting out of every pore in his skin. “One day, I swear I will make you go to the dance floor and dance the night away while listening to my music.”

 

“Yes, maybe one day I will,” acknowledged Akashi with a soft nod of his head.

 

“No, no, no~ No use trying to refuse me because it— …Eh?” started trying to convince Kise but he came to a sudden pause when he processed the words that the smaller male had actually said, ones that went according to his requests for the first time in the long years of their business relationship. “Wait, what!?”

 

“I’ve found a good dancing partner so why not give it a try?” pointed out Akashi, a gentle look in his heterochromatic eyes as he gave a quick shrug with his shoulders.

 

“Akashicchi, you’re acting quite scary today…” unconsciously blurted out Kise, an eyebrow slightly perked up as he curiously looked over to the redhead.

 

“Akashi!” called a male voice when Akashi was about to question the blonde over what he had said. When he looked over his shoulder, he saw both Midorima and Murasakibara going over in their direction, a serious demeanor in the green haired male and the purple haired male chewing on some gummy bears.

 

“Is something the matter, Shintarou, Atsushi?” inquired Akashi right away, turning his body around to that he could face the two newcomers and returning his working expression to his features.

 

“Sort of,” quickly answered Midorima, passing a couple of sheets of paper to the redhead so that he could also read the source of information of what he was about to say. “I was informed by my associate that there have been some recent troubles in the Roppongi area, especially revolving around nightclubs. Maybe it would be wiser to get an extra bodyguard, just in case… well, just in case Haizaki fails us in _some_ sort of way.”

 

“I see,” acknowledged Akashi with a nod of his head, taking a hold of the documents and giving them a quick swipe with his eyes. “I’ll discuss this matter with Shuuzou and, most likely, Shougo too, so that I can also hear his opinion in that regard.”

 

“Good luck with that, Aka-chin,” cheered Murasakibara with a mouth full of gummy bears and a relaxed expression on his face.

 

“Is there also something that you want to inform me of, Atsushi?” asked Akashi, turning his attention towards the purple haired male.

 

“Nope~ Just wanted to ask if it would be okay for me to do some desserts to serve in the bar area, from time to time,” requested Murasakibara, crunching the empty plastic bag with his hand. “I have a lot of fun when I bake sweets, after all.”

 

“…” Keeping the taller male under his gaze, Akashi closely thought about that request. It was already enough to have Aomine working there to have a chance of getting to have the bluenette spend another night there – if they added sweets and desserts to the equation, then he would get to see the cute ‘sparkling mode’ that Kuroko had when tasting them during such visits. “Yes, why not add them to the menu then? They were quite popular with the customers and it could be a good marketing extra, since I don’t believe there are a lot of nightclubs that actually supply desserts.”

 

“Hm… I guess that’s true,” acknowledged Murasakibara as he took a pocky box out of the back pocket of his pants.

 

“As such, we might as well give it a thought before we put it on motions and carefully choose which desserts would go well with both our drinks and cocktails, but also keeping in mind the location,” continued Akashi, his business mode fully settling in as he continued to scavenge this idea in his head. “Nightclubs can get quite stuffy if there are a lot of people and most of the customers don’t stay sat down for a long time, if even at any moment. Those are some points that you should have in consideration when you explore your options.”

 

“Okay,” acknowledged Murasakibara with a nod of his head, his purple eyes shining with excitement as he hungrily munched in a white chocolate pocky. “I guess I will need some volunteers for the taste testing. I think that if it was only one person, they would eventually die from diabetes.”

 

“Oh, I volunteer~!!” immediately yelled Kise, raising his hand high in the air.

 

“I don’t think that’s a problem, Atsushi,” also acknowledged Akashi, a soft smile in his lips. “I have the perfect taste tester to help you with that in mind. Of course Ryouta is more than welcome to come help occasionally.”

 

“Eh~ Why occasionally only~?” complained Kise, sulking over the fact that he was already being limited from the get go.

 

“You have your own duties to attend and I also don’t want a lot of people around during the taste testing,” pointed out Akashi, crossing his arms over his chest as he peered sideways to the blonde. “Privacy is something that I take great relish in having, after all.”

 

 _Why do you want privacy while taste testing desserts?,_ inwardly questioned Midorima, Murasakibara and Kise at the same time, every single one of them feeling that the redhead was somewhat different from who he used to be just the day before.

 

“Is there anything else that you would like to discuss?” asked Akashi, taking a look at all three males. When he saw no reaction from them, he gave a sharp nod with his head in acknowledgment. “Goo—“

 

“Good because now it’s my turn to have a talk with you,” suddenly interrupted a male voice. When the group looked over to where it had came from, they saw Aomine near the stairs that gave access to the dance floor, his arms crossed over his chest and a stern look in his face. “In private.”

 

“…” Akashi kept looking in the tanned male’s direction without saying anything for a couple more of seconds – he had already suspected that Aomine would come to talk with him at some point, taking into consideration that he was the one who had to take Kuroko back to his apartment in such a fashion. Though he knew that Aomine was as straight to the point as an arrow, the redhead was slightly taken aback by how quickly he had actually came for the talk. “Let’s move on to my office then. I’m sure Shuuzou can provide us some minutes alone.”

 

“Sure,” acknowledged Aomine, turning on his heels afterwards and starting to climb back the stairs in the first floor office’s direction.

 

“If you need anything else, report it to Shuuzou for the time being,” announced Akashi to the other three workers, starting to follow after the tanned male almost immediately after he finished talking.

 

“Do you think that something happened between Aominecchi and Akashicchi?” asked Kise after the two males in question had disappeared from their sight. “I haven’t seen Aominecchi look that serious in a looooong time.”

 

“How would I know?” pointed out Midorima, shrugging his shoulders. He gave a quick adjustment to his glasses and also turned around to resume with his own work. “But I get the feeling that it has to do with why Akashi is in such a good mood.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nfufufu... I wonder how the conversation between Akashi and Aomine will go~ Hehehehe... *mischievous smirk* I guess you will only be able to find out next month now, muwahahahahaha!
> 
> Twitter: https://twitter.com/Mafy_mod  
> Tumblr: http://mafymod.tumblr.com/  
> Website: https://mafymod13.wixsite.com/hiejimamutsumi


	16. No Problem!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, minna-san! Mafy's here with another chapter ^.^
> 
> As you can see, I'm officially out of my break~ And what better start than to see a lovestruck Akashi once again? Because, if I remember correctly, an important discussion between a panther and a lion was to happen next, right? :3  
> Also~ If you have been checking my Release Schedule page, then you must have noticed that there's a new fanfiction coming~ That fic is none other than a "prequel" to Break My Silence! It tells the KagaAo story that has been mentioned in this fic from time to time~ Its release schedule will be on the day following Break My Silence's release (aka 16th of every month) I hope you enjoy it as much as this one when it comes out this Sunday :D
> 
> Enjoy!

“I take it that you have come to talk about Tetsuya. Right, Daiki?” stated Akashi right away as soon as his lower back meet with the edge of his desk and the tanned male closed the door to the office on the floor above the nightclub.

 

“Yes, I have,” acknowledged Aomine, a serious demeanour still present in his face. He released a loud and long sigh to take some of the tension of his body and rubbed the back of his neck with one of his hand, averting looking in the redhead’s direction. “Look, I’ll just come out and say it honestly. I accidentally overheard you and Tetsu having sex in the bathroom last night.”

 

“...”

 

“Tetsu’s a grownup, he can take care of himself just fine and make his own decisions without needing interference from anyone, including me,” continued Aomine, his hand descending from his neck once again and his arms crossing over his chest as he now looked directly to the heterochromatic eyes of the smaller male. “But I’ve known him since we were little brats. Even if I can’t really change any of his decisions or convince him on changing them even, I still think I deserve to have a little say or comment on what goes around on his life. That’s why... Thank you, Akashi.”

 

An eyebrow was immediately arched on Akashi’s forehead as he curiously looked at the tanned male. That final sentence was definitely something that he wasn’t expecting to hear from the bluenette’s protective childhood friend, especially taking into consideration that he had overheard what had happened between the two of them inside of the bathroom... even less seeing _the_ Aomine Daiki bow his head just the slightest at him.

 

“Why exactly are you thanking me?” ended up asking Akashi, completely lost on what was going on inwardly even though his semblance remained the most neutral as it was possible. “Tetsuya has selective mutism and from what you and his aichmophobia have hinted, not the best of past to talk about. You’re his childhood friend and you heard him having sex inside of a bathroom with me. I don’t understand why you are thanking me and not yelling or, worse case scenario, punching me.”

 

“Ahh... I don’t get it either,” confessed Aomine, clicking his tongue in frustration. “But Tetsu willingly touched another person. I have to be honest, I thought he would die a virgin and without having dated anyone during his whole life. He may occasionally pat Satsuki’s head and fist bump with me or Kagami, but that’s as far as his physical contact with us goes. With other people, it’s basically nonexistent. So... You catch my drift, right? The fact that he had sex with you is pretty much a miracle!”

 

Akashi wasn’t really sure if the tanned male was currently complimenting his sexual encounter with the bluenette or if indirectly telling him that Kuroko was supposed to not feel any attraction, whatsoever its nature, towards him, so he decided to remain silent and continue to listen to what Aomine had to say.

 

“And, like you said, if we take his past into consideration, then what happened last night is on a whole different level from a miracle!” added Aomine, his eyebrows slightly furrowed as he maintained his gaze on the smaller male. “I don’t want to speak about Tetsu’s past to anyone without his authorization, but things like ‘family’ and ‘love relationships’ are words pretty much without a place in his dictionary because he doesn’t have a good experience with both of them. He used to get really angry at me because of my... well, past misbehaving, but he never tried to pursue a correct and proper relationship with anyone himself. And for fuck’s sake, offers definitely weren’t the problem here. You have no idea how many people have asked him out when he went to other nightclubs with m—“

 

“...”

 

“A-Anyway,” interrupted himself Aomine, feeling a shudder crawl up his spine with the slight glare that the redhead had unconsciously sent his way. “You seemed to have hit off with each other quite well when you were talking with each other before the opening party and Kuroko has a pretty good eye when it comes to other people, if I do say so myself. So I’ll leave him in your hands, Akashi. Just... go easy on him when you’re... you know, _doing it_. It’s not exactly easy having a dick shoved inside of your ass, no matter the size.”

 

“Again, why?” asked Akashi, his head slightly tilted to the right as he gazed to the tanned male with even more curiosity. “I still don’t get why you are having this type of conversation with me.”

 

“Why, you ask...” mumbled Aomine, dropping his arms to the side of his body and then positioning his hands on his hips, a knowing smirk slowly appearing on his lips. “Because you fell in love with Tetsu, right? I don’t see any other reason for you having done what you did yesterday, otherwise. And the smile on your face while you were carrying him on your back after you came out of the bathroom was a dead giveaway.”

 

Akashi couldn’t help but softly laugh at the tanned male’s words, a bright smile on his features as a beautiful glint appeared on his heterochromatic eyes. “Yes, I did indeed fell in love with Tetsuya. At first sight, to be honest. And it’s precisely that that I intend on telling him today when we meet at 5pm.”

 

“Yeah? Break a leg, then,” acknowledged Aomine, once again grinning at the smaller male and then walking towards him, giving a quick pat on his shoulder before turning around on his heels and opening the door to return to the lower floor and start making the necessary preparations on his side for that night of work.

 

 _Though I don’t think he needs that much luck on confessing, after what Kagami reported to me on a phone call while almost bawling his eyes out, claiming ‘Kuroko has finally fallen in love!”,_ inwardly pointed out Aomine as he climbed down the stairs, his body displaying a contempt and energetic rhythm.

 

Maybe Kuroko had finally bumped into what could return normalcy to his life and give back to him what he had lost six years ago, maybe even earlier than that... even if that meant that he would get to have his boss as a ‘son-in-law’ instead of your regular, next door girl.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well... Aomine gained a "son-in-law" and Akashi gained the approval of one of Kuroko's "fathers" XD I can't really guarantee that it will be this easy for Akashi when it comes to Kagami though -.-' He takes overprotectiveness to a whole new level - for reasons yet to be revealed~  
> Now we just have to patiently wait for the "5PM date" and see what is to happen to these two love-struck cuties XD
> 
> Twitter: https://twitter.com/Mafy_mod  
> Tumblr: http://mafymod.tumblr.com/  
> Website: https://mafymod13.wixsite.com/hiejimamutsumi  
> [Release Schedule](https://mafysreleaseschedule.blogspot.co.uk/)


	17. Poison Apple

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, minna-san! Mafy's here with the monthly chapter~
> 
> It really pains me that I can't give you more frequent releases for this story *sniff* Maybe in the future I will be able to do so! Maybe once I finish one of the other fics I can do it! But... my works are always so lengthy... Ugh... Anyways, enjoy the chapter because a shift of the winds is approaching~ *evil smirk*
> 
> [Thank you, Midnight, for proofreading~]

As it was usual, Kuroko had to stand in front of the automatic door, waiting for the electronic sensor to notice his very feeble presence. He only managed to access Seirin Publishings when a worker from the company actually exited the building, allowing the bluenette to slip inside, hopefully to still arrive on time to meet with his editor.

 

After going up in the elevator a couple of floors, Kuroko skirted around through the corridors until he reached the biggest editorial department of the publishing company – one that had risen up pretty much thanks to him, as some of the editors working in that department liked to whisper around when they thought he wasn’t listening.

 

Once he reached Aida Riko’s, the editor-in-chief and his own personal editor, he gave a soft knock on the table where she was furiously working, a concentration of steel on what she was typing and reading on the screen of the computer.

 

“Woah, Kuroko-kun!!” screamed Riko, her body turning around and rolling the chair she was sitting on with her body’s momentum. Her heart thundering in her chest, she released a long sigh. “Why is it that even after all of these years, you can still almost give me a heart atta— Ah... Sorry, that was uncalled for. But nevertheless, stop scaring people by randomly popping out of nowhere!”

 

Kuroko gave a quick upturn to the corner of his lips and gave a soft nod with his head, motioning the bag strapped over his chest and back forward so that he could ramble through the insides. He quickly took out of there a notebook and a marker, which he readily started using to reply to the brunette.

 

_[It wasn’t my intention of scaring you, Riko-san. But you should already be aware that I would show up at this time since it was you who requested this meeting.]_

 

“Oh, it’s already this late!?” yelped Riko when she took a peek to the clock on the wall of that department. She immediately picked up a couple of folders and got up from her desk, giving a quick jerk to her chin to tell the bluenette to follow after her. “Let’s move on to the meeting room. And... Where’s your cell phone?”

 

A soft shade of pink creeping into his cheeks, Kuroko looked back to the notebook, turned around to another page and quickly used the marker to write on the new and clean sheet.

 

_[I was in a slight hurry to go out, due to the lengthy conversation I had with a friend. In the midst of rushing out, I forgot my cell phone at home. When I noticed that, I quickly stopped at a store in the train station and bought a notebook and a marker.]_

 

“How can you forget the most essential tool to communicating with others at home?” half admonished Riko, chuckling just a little bit. “That’s quite unusual of you, though. What sort of conversation was it to make the famous writer Shiroko Ichigou forget something so important to him, when there’s no sort of detail that passes through his well honed observational ability when it comes to everything around him and so well implemented on his novels?”

 

_[Please let’s drop that subject here, Riko-san.]_

 

“Ahahaha, okay, okay,” acknowledged Riko in the midst of the enjoyment of teasing the bluenette just a little bit. She opened the door of the main meeting room of that floor and allowed space for the male to come inside first, as the rules of etiquette in the publishing world dictated – more so in the presence of one of the most famous literature novels of Japan at the moment. Once the both of them were comfortably sat down on the large round table, Riko gave the meeting as open. “I asked you to come here today for two reasons, Kuroko-kun.”

 

“...”

 

“The first is to know how the production of your next novel coming along,” continued Riko, settling the folders on the table in the order of the matters that were to be address. “Last time I contacted you, you said that it was already half way done. How is it coming along right now?”

 

_[Like I said in my last email to you, I have written around 60% of the full novel, no proofreading done to it yet. With my moving in to a new apartment I had my writing time reduced slightly so I haven’t been doing a lot of progress in the last couple of days. But I believe that I will have it fully written and ready to be proofread as a whole by the end of this month.]_

 

“That’s more than perfect. It’s within your usual deadline and it’s also in agreement with the proofreader’s schedule,” acknowledged Riko, giving soft nods with her head as she spoke. “Do you have any plans regarding your next book?”

 

When Riko saw the soft smile that popped up in the bluenette’s lips, one that retained a certain bashfulness to it, as he wrote down on the notebook once again, for some reason... For some reason, the brunette immediately knew that _that_ novel would surpass by far all the previous hits and bestsellers that Kuroko had previously wrote.

 

_[I do have something in mind, but I still don’t know what the ending of the story will be. I believe that I will have the first clue on it today, in the evening, though. So I would like to save this novel in particular for later and focus on another draft that I have already written down.]_

 

“Is that so? I will wait patiently to hear about the story and its unknown ending then,” acknowledged Riko, now definitely with her interest piqued on that possible future explosive best seller. “If you could send me by email the plot and draft of this next story together with the completed novel that you are currently writing, it would be perfect. Do you think you can do both by the end of the month?”

 

Kuroko gave a quick nod with his head as an answer to the female editor’s question, motioning his hand up from the table to give a thumbs up at her.

 

“Great! Moving on to the second thing I wanted to discuss with you,” started Riko, clearing her throat in a masked way as she picked up the folder that would be used to this next topic. “Kuroko-kun... Yesterday, I received a phone call from America.”

 

An eyebrow immediately arched at those words, his expression remaining with the same tranquillity as always even with the suspicions that were starting to crawl inside of his brain.

 

“It was from a famous filmmaker. He’s interested in bringing one of your novel to the big screen and he will come to Japan next week in order to discuss further details on his proposal,” continued Riko, her expression dead serious even with the wonderful news that she was dropping all of a sudden to the bluenette.

 

Releasing a soundless sigh, Kuroko looked down to the notebook and write a single sentence on it.

 

_[What’s the catch?]_

 

“...” Riko softly bit the inside of her cheek. She knew what would be the bluenette’s answer as soon as she revealed the main condition for the discussion of the movie production to even begin. “The director wants to meet Shiroko Ichigou personally and the entire production would be made in a joint between the director and the writer to portray the novel as accurately as it is possible within movie adaptations.”

 

_[No.]_

 

“Kuroko-kun...!” exasperatedly called Riko, her shoulders slumping down and putting the papers in her hand back on the table’s surface. “One of your books managed to catch the attention of an extremely famous American filmmaker! This can be the shifting point in your career that will open your novels to the whole world, not only to Japan! There’s no bigger pride for a writer than to see their work being transformed from words to actual images of real people on a screen, whether the big one or the small one in our living rooms. And you now have that opportunity dropped right in front of you!”

 

Instead of writing a new message to the brunette, Kuroko simply maintained the previous page open in the female editor’s direction and motioned it forward in her direction, as if wanting to say that his answer still remained the same, big opportunity for his career or not.

 

“I honestly don’t get you, Kuroko-kun...” sighed Riko, her back slumping down against the backrest of the chair she was sitting on. “When your previous duology received a drama adaptation proposal, you gave me the exact same answer as now. The only reason as to why it was actually adapted was because we managed to convince the director that none of the staff related to the drama production would get to meet with the writer of the two novels. You do have the notion that because of that the secrecy behind the famous writer Shiroko Ichigou is one of the most talked about topics on the Internet, right?”

 

“...”

 

“You use a penname, you don’t make any public appearances even when a new novel comes out, you never do any signing events for the readers and you never showed your face to anyone that worked on your books with the exception of the workers of the literature department of Seirin Publishings,” continued Riko, growing more and more exasperated at her own words. She released another heavy sigh. “Is it because you can’t speak?”

 

“...”

 

“It is, isn’t it?” pressed forward Riko, straightening her body once again in her previous sitting position. “People won’t judge you or stop reading your novels just because you can’t speak, Kuroko-kun. Actually, it may be a quite refreshing circumstance to the literature world and give the necessary courage to the small writers with similar disabilities to your own to step up and deliver their works to any publishing company. Don’t put a break in your career when it is finally flying high in the sky because of your lack of self-confidence and belief that others will pity you if they get to know you.”

 

“...”

 

After a couple of minutes of deep silence inside of the meeting room, Kuroko turned the notebook back to himself as he released another soundless sigh.

 

_[Could you please give me a couple of days to think about this, Riko-san?]_

 

“You have until next Friday, when the director is scheduled to arrive to Haneda Airport,” acknowledged Riko, giving a satisfied nod of her head. “He seems to be a quite persistent man, so I think that when he said that he won’t have any discussion regarding this matter except if Shiroko Ichigou is present, he will really return to America after rescinding his proposal. Or he will continue to push and push until someone gives in and he gets to do what he wants. That type of person, you see.”

 

_[Who is the director that made the movie proposal?]_

 

“His name is Nash Gold Jr., an American filmmaker that has countless Oscars and other important rewards under his belt, even though his career has pretty much the same length as yours,” explained Riko, another serious demeanour, one almost of discomfort, appearing on her features. “He also... has a lot of rumours going around him. The difference is that it’s not about his secrecy but the lack of such.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well... What exactly can I say in my defence here? Um... I'm a sadistic writer so please forgive me? *does puppy eyes*
> 
> Twitter: https://twitter.com/Mafy_mod  
> Tumblr: http://mafymod.tumblr.com/  
> Website: https://mafymod13.wixsite.com/hiejimamutsumi  
> [Release Schedule](https://mafysreleaseschedule.blogspot.co.uk/)


	18. Why Not?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, minna-san. Mafy's here with... surprise?
> 
> While I was writing Eat Me, Drink Me, I sort of got stumped in a bit so, as I try to sort that out, I decided to go around other fics in the meantime ^.^ And it's not just Break My Silence *winks*
> 
> Enjoy our lovey-dovey babies after so long without any update on this fic (sorry -.-')
> 
> [Thank you, Midnight, for proofreading this chapter~]

Walking back and forth while in front of ‘Kaiser des Lichts’, Kuroko nervously glanced at the closed front door of the nightclub every couple of seconds. When it had been so easy to go through that very same door the previous day, why was it now so hard, embarrassing and almost maddening due to the fast pace of his heart rhythm to even look in the building’s direction?

 

Was it because he had fallen in love at first sight with another male in the bar area? Was it because he had outright tried to seduce said male with his body movements while on the dance floor? Was it because he had had sex with that said male in the bathroom?

 

“…” Inwardly screaming, Kuroko motioned his hands up and clutched at his blue locks, his body going through the opposite motions as he crouched himself down. His whole face was painted by a myriad of shades of red, his heart now beating one hundred times faster than when he had arrived to that location.

 

 _What should I do…?_ , asked himself Kuroko in the back of his mind, taking slow, deep breaths to try to calm himself down. _I can’t go meet with Akashi-kun like this. I feel that if I were to see him right now, my brain and heart would go into both overload and overheating and I would just crash down completely, going through the motions denominated as ‘passing out’._

 

As he continued to delve into deep thinking over what he should do, the door to which he was standing right in front of suddenly opened and hit him straight on his head, a loud metallic thud echoing through the half desert street as his body toppled backwards just the slightest.

 

“Oh?” said Akashi as he exited the building, his eyes slowly motioning downwards in the direction of both the thudding sound and whatever the fort had bumped into while he was opening it. When he saw the bluenette sprawled on the floor, silently rubbing his forehead with tearstained eyes, he readily released the door and crouched his own body down. “Are you okay, Tetsuya? Did I accidentally hit you when I opened the door?”

 

His cheeks once again inflaming into a hot shade of pink due to the redhead’s fingertips on his forehead, Kuroko awkwardly groped his jacket’s pocket in search for his cell phone. A useless action, for he had forgotten the electronic device back in his apartment before he went out to meet with his editor in Seirin Publishing. With even more awkward and clumsy movements, he dropped the small backpack resting in one of his shoulders and went for the notebook and pen that he had scattered in its insides, readily pulling them out once he found them and opening the notebook in an unused page so he could write in it.

 

_[I’m okay, Akashi-kun. You did hit me with the door but I was already down on the floor before that. And the door didn’t even hit me with all that much strength.]_

 

“That’s good to know but…” worriedly continued Akashi, releasing the blushing features of the bluenette and quickly surveying his body with his heterochromatic eyes so as to search for any problem with him. “Why were you already down on the floor? Are you feeling ill, perhaps?”

 

 _If love sickness was a true disease, then yes, I am terminally ill right now,_ said Kuroko in the back of his mind, not even daring himself to write such words in the notebook. He switched his writing material back to himself and wrote a new message in the same page, below the previous one.

 

_[I was just going through my own musings as I tried to let time pass by. I did arrive earlier than our appointed time.]_

 

“You didn’t have to, you dummy,” said Akashi in between soft chuckles. He once again motioned one of his hands forward and softly traced with his index’s fingertip the small reddish mark appearing in the bluenette’s forehead. “I would have appreciated it if you had actually arrived much, much earlier. That way, I would get to spend more time with you. Well, we can always extend our meeting time to compensate for the lost minutes here, right?”

 

Shyly dropping by gaze back to the notebook, he turned it around towards him once again and, with a small and clumsy handwritten sentence, he added a final message to that same page.

 

_[I’ll be sure to do that the next time.]_

 

“Is that so?” acknowledge Akashi, happily smiling at the bluenette as he gently ruffled his blue locks. He then dropped his hand just the slightest and outstretched it towards the smaller male, offering it to him in a helping motion. He couldn’t help but chuckle once again when he saw the bluenette staring at his hand, completely motionless on the floor. “Come on, don’t be shy now. Holding hands shouldn’t be a matter of embarrassment for you, after what happened yesterd— Huff!!”

 

Out of the blue, Kuroko’s notebook was shoved straight in Akashi’s face, completely cutting short the teasing words he was pronouncing with its impact.

 

“Should I feel thankful that you didn’t gut punch me right here, right now?” asked Akashi as he grabbed the notebook as it was almost dropping to the ground and amusingly observed the bluenette getting back up by his own means, his hands straightening his backpack on his shoulder with sulking motions. When Kuroko gave a sharp nod of his head, he couldn’t help but laugh. “Thank you for being merciful on me, then, Tetsuya.”

 

After grumbling to himself for a couple of seconds, Kuroko turned around and faced the redhead once again, one of his hands hesitantly climbing up in the air only to land on Akashi’s face, which he gently and light caressed in the tip of the nose with the back of his finger – the biggest victim of the crash face first with his notebook.

 

“No, actually, don’t be merciful on me anymore,” breathed Akashi, his body shivering just the slightest at the sight of the endearing blush on the bluenette’s cheeks as he apologetically and extremely shyly glanced at him. “Next time, gut punch me with all your might. I want to see what kind of things you would do to console me afterwards. Ah! But not right now.”

 

Kuroko dropped back to the sides of his body the closed fist that he was already pulling backwards and aiming towards the redhead’s stomach area, twisting his nose just the slightest at the unorthodox teasing that Akashi was momentarily displaying. He still hadn’t figured out if it was simply in his personality, despite his usual serious demeanour when dealing with other people, or if he was doing it on purpose to observe his reactions to it. Maybe his better countermeasure for it was to display absolutely no reaction at the teasing, if such was even possible to accomplish.

 

“I’m sorry, Tetsuya,” apologized Akashi in the shape of a sigh. “I know I was the one who asked you to meet with me today and you even arranged some time in your schedule to come here, but some unexpected and fully unwelcomed trouble surfaced with one of my business partners in terms of suppliers. So I need to go sort it out the soonest possible so it doesn’t cause any damages to my sales.”

 

At hearing those words, Kuroko readily slumped down his shoulders, a dissatisfied expression popping up on the features that he was trying to keep as expressionless as it was humanly possible for him.

 

All of his expectations, welcomed (in an extremely roundabout way) nervousness and excitement over this meeting – they all dropped down, down, down in the time frame of 10 seconds, the amount of time that took the redhead to explain him his current situation without delving too much into details.

 

“I was about to text you to arrange the meeting time for a later hour but…” sighed Akashi, waving around the cell phone’s screen – half of the message had been already typed in it, seeing as he had been writing it on his way to the outside of the nightclub. “It seems I was too late because you arrived too early.”

 

When Akashi saw the bluenette shrinking even further his body, his head downcast in maybe regret over having showed up at the wrong time, he motioned one of his hands forward and gently wrapped it around one of the bluenette’s, wiggling his fingers around just a little bit so he could entwine their fingers.

 

“I can only see one solution to this unwelcomed problem,” announced Akashi, a knowing smirk on his lips as he stared straight into the teal eyes curiously looking over in his direction. He gave a quick, but extremely soft, tug to his limb and started pulling him along as he motioned to the garage area where his and the other employers’ cars were being parked in. “I will have to take you along with me.”

 

If Kuroko had been able to speak, he would have thrown a long and quite loud ‘EH!?’ at the completely unexpected decision that Akashi had taken, all on his own.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's certainly one way to go about it... Just drag a person completely unrelated to your business around with you and show him how cool you are when doing your thing XD Ahh... They have fallen so deep <3
> 
> [Twitter](https://twitter.com/Mafy_mod)   
>  [Tumblr](http://mafymod.tumblr.com/)   
>  [Hiejima Mutsumi Website](https://mafymod13.wixsite.com/hiejimamutsumi)   
>  [Weekly Previous](https://mafysreleaseschedule.blogspot.co.uk/)   
>  [Read my KnB dj translations here~](https://mafyjaponica.blogspot.co.uk/)


End file.
